Tempus Materia
by Dracis Tran
Summary: A small town on the crossroads: Sallah. As a rash of Sorcery-related crimes are committed, a new mystery unfolds.
1. Investigator Day 1

**Investigator Day 1**

Flying over the countryside on dragonback was not something that Lillet enjoyed, even now, but when she had to get somewhere in the Kingdom quickly, it was still the best way. And this was one of those situations that required her to move with all possible speed. The advantage of the situation is that it kept her mind off of the dragon that she was astride. When there were issues in the countryside with Sorcery causing murders, it wasn't always the best thing for the Mage Consul to be taking on herself... but the fact that she happened to be in the area helped. Plus, it was something she didn't want to hear secondhand. The murders that were happening in that area of the country were getting more and more common. And most of them had Sorcery involved. This had caused quite a ruckus among the Royal Magicians, and the rumors that had made it to the common people hadn't been helping. Lillet had been involved in too many meetings lately. Now, when the message had come, Lillet jumped at the chance to do some of her own research on what was happening.

Not that the Royal House of Magic was completely pleased with her doing that, but they really didn't have a choice in the matter. With all of the pressure that Lillet had bearing down on her because of the rash of improper magic, she probably would have chosen to respond to the message anyway. Lillet had been lucky enough to be staying in a town with a Royal Magician, and she had burst into the room where Lillet had been staying to tell her that a meeting was going to take place. Communication magic was sometimes hard to wield, but Lillet had proved up to the task. She did feel a little guilty extending her trip without letting Amoretta know beforehand, but she'd make it up to her somehow. She had sent a message, of course, but that didn't stop the guilt. She tried to get her mind more on the task at hand.

The town of Sallah was a relatively small one, and had grown up around a crossroads that connected the country to the west, Albion, the country to the south, Olika, and the main roads and thoroughfares through the Kingdom. The fact that it also seemed to be the dead center of the issues that had been happening in the area... well, Lillet was happy that there was a member of the Royal House of Magic that retired there. She didn't know Ms. Waldorf all that well, but she hoped that this would give her the opportunity to learn about the older woman. There had been quite a few strange happenings in the area surrounding the town, but this was the first time that something like a Sorcery-killing had taken place in the town itself, so far as the Royal House of Magic knew. Maybe Ms. Waldorf knew differently, but that was part of the reason that Lillet was heading to the town herself in the first place.

The town came into view as the dragon spiraled lazily down to land Lillet safely just on the outskirts of the road that cut through the center of town. She could see some of the local guard on the main roads, ready to direct any traffic, and others taking down some temporary fencing that blocked some other places. Lillet's dragon landed with a bump, and Lillet dismounted with practiced ease. She removed the saddle which had her supplies with a smooth motion and laid it on the ground before giving the hand signal that indicated that the dragon was dismissed. He would head off into the mountains to the north to feed on the local wildlife until she summoned him back to her.

Hoisting the saddle, which she maneuvered into a makeshift bag, she started heading down the road into the main area, toward the local Magistrate's office. A man by the name of Rupert Medoc was the Magistrate here, though Lillet remembered that his authority was less about the town and more about the surrounding area of well-traveled roads. Upon her landing, she surmised, a member of the Magistrate's guard must have gone inside the office, because the man that was now coming to meet her could be no one other than the Magistrate.

"There was no need for you to come," he said brusquely, with a hand gesture that meant to brush her to one side. "We have already apprehended the culprits that you were contacted about."

"Have you?" Lillet asked. "That's excellent. I won't have to question everyone about it, just a few people that were involved, then."

"There is no need, the case is closed." The man was insistent on this point.

"I assure you, I do not engage in activities that are not necessary. The office of the Mage Consul has been inter-"

He cut her off. "You tell the Consul that everything around here is under control, and there is no need for -"

Lillet cut him off in turn. "As the Consul, do you believe I would come here if I thought there was any possibility that my office should not be involved?"

This gave the man pause. "Well, ah... of course not... my Lady..." Ah, rank. Most of the time, Lillet hated people deferring to her because of her rank and office, but when it became necessary, she was thankful for its use in her duties.

"Good. If you've already solved the incident that I was called in on, that makes my job here simpler. I'll be out of your hair in a few days, I promise."

"Why did you not arrive with your carriage, my Lady? Or with warning? We would be happy to provide you with the noble's suite, but it is not yet ready..."

"I needed to come with speed, not pomp and circumstance, Magistrate. I imagine my quarters can be made well enough by this evening."

"I will make sure of it," the Magistrate promised, and then with a bow, he headed back into the office and started barking orders. Lillet didn't pay any attention to his barking, instead continuing down the lane towards a small shop that was just off the main road. _Astoria's Greens_ didn't look like much from the outside, but the fact that even it was busy at that time of day was telling. Lillet walked in and placed her pack by the door quietly, trying not to disturb the proprietor as she dealt with a client.

"Well... if the root didn't work, then there's probably something I can do with some Fae help that will increase your chances. I want you to stay on the root regimen until I do, though. It could still work! None of these methods are perfect, after all."

"Thank you, Astoria," the customer said, bowing, though it was obvious that she remained troubled as she left. There remained only one other customer besides Lillet, but as the other customer was browsing the wares kept on one side of the shop, Astoria's eyes went to Lillet.

"Can I help you, young lady?" Lillet noticed that there were bags under her eyes. She probably hadn't slept a wink the previous night.

"You're the one who sent a message to the Royal House of Magic, Ms. Waldorf," Lillet admonished gently. "I'm the one who's supposed to be helping you."

The older woman's eyebrows went up. "That was fast of you. Who might I have the pleasure of meeting? I know you weren't a Royal Magician when I retired..."

"Lillet Blan, at your service."

Somehow, the faded eyebrows went higher, then Astoria Waldorf bowed deeply. "The Mage Consul herself. It is an honor to meet you, my dear. Though it is hard to believe that they promoted one so young into the position, your exploits are quite famous."

"Thank you. I heard that they caught and have arrested the culprits for the murder that you had sent us about?" The remaining customer, realizing that neither woman was paying attention to her, quickly left.

Though she had risen from her bow, Astoria's eyes remained downcast. "Yes, so they say. They were caught in the act of killing my... my apprentice just a day later. They were thrown into jail for the crime, and have been under heavy watch since."

"You doubt that they have the right people, Ms. Waldorf?"

Astoria's eyes came up. "Please, call me Astoria, Consul. I... I have to doubt it, as when they killed my Am... apprentice they used no Sorcery at all, and I know that there was Sorcery involved in Sammy's death."

"Sammy Siliam was the one that died the day before yesterday, if I remember correctly from your message to the Royal House, yes?" Lillet received a nod in confirmation. "Who was the recent victim?"

"Amy... Amy Foster." The older woman took a steadying breath.

"You were close?"

"Yes." The woman could barely choke out the word.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Astoria," Lillet said softly. "I only need one more thing from you: where is it that Sammy was killed?"

"She... she ha - _has_ a garden near the Western road. She was found there."

"Thank you," Lillet said, and she gathered her things from by the door. "I promise that we arrest the culprit for Sammy's murder, and if I must, I will take the murderers of your apprentice to the Capital for proper punishment." She received another bow, and bowed back before leaving the shop.

As the remaining residue of any magical working faded over time, the most important next step was obviously to check out the garden where Sammy had been killed... but Lillet was not hopeful that there would be any residue of the Sorcery there after almost two full days. If the murderer had been smart, the summoning of the creature that had done the actual deed would have been done far away from where the deed took place. But, it was worth a try in any case.

Walking along the street that lead toward the western road, Lillet very nearly ran into a young woman about her own age who came out of the inn. The woman was startled and pushed her spectacles back up her nose. "I'm so terribly sorry!" she said as she flushed. "I really should watch where I'm going, hmm?" she giggled a little bit, then looked directly into Lillet's eyes and froze.

The woman dropped into a deep curtsey as her flush became even more pronounced. "And I nearly flounced into the Mage Consul! I'm so terribly sorry, my Lady...I cannot believe..." she babbled on for a little bit before Lillet brought her up short.

"That's quite alright, Miss..." though a small part of her told her that she should know this name without being prompted.

"S-Silvaner. Gertrude Silvaner." She bobbed another curtsey and, when Lillet made a move to go around her and continue on her way, positively fled down the street away from Lillet. Lillet allowed herself a small chuckle at the antics of village girls before continuing her own way at a much statelier pace.

The garden was a little hard to find, as the trampled flowers and plants looked a lot like the wild bushes and grass that surrounded the small town. Rolling hills of grass and small vegetation were visible in all directions, so long as one of the many buildings that had sprung up around the crossroads weren't in your way. As the garden was located on the outskirts of town, and had apparently been completely trampled and destroyed, it was difficult to determine what was "the garden" and what was just surrounding vegetation. The fallen fence was Lillet's best clue as to what she was looking at.

Once she was sure, Lillet placed her pack to one side and took out some tools, with which she quickly and efficiently drew a rune that she had drawn hundreds of times. Once completed, she charged it with mana, and set about drawing a second rune, which she had drawn many times, but not nearly as many as the first, which she had used in her time at the Silver Star Tower.

The second rune, called the Devil's Tool, allowed Imps to Advent Chaos Sensors. Once the rune was complete and an Imp popped out of the first Hell Gate rune, Lillet ordered the little devil to create the Advent right in the center of the garden. Waiting for the Advent to coalesce completely in the world, Lillet took a better look around at what was kept in the garden. Various fruits, vegetables, and a ton of flowers littered the area, none of which seemed to be in any usable state anymore. It was impossible to determine where exactly the deed had taken place or where the body was found – there was too much that was wrong with the place.

Once the Advent had materialized, Lillet dismissed the imp and frowned as she noticed what the Chaos Sensor was indicating. While it had the faint glow that indicated that Sorcery had been cast sometime in the past few days somewhere within about a mile, it didn't have any better indication. There was no obvious red light shining from the eye-looking contraption in the center to say that there was Sorcery being cast now, or a purple glow from around the eye to indicate that Sorcery had been cast within thirty feet from the Advent in the last day or two (all, of course, ignoring Lillet's own).

No hints – It was nothing that Lillet didn't already know. There was a Sorcerer that practiced around here, but that didn't necessarily mean anything criminal. Sure, the uses for Sorcery were _often_ only defensible by the self-defense argument... but it couldn't just be assumed. So the magic had, essentially, been a worthless exercise. Lillet dismissed the Advent and the runes, taking some of the spent mana back. She'd have to find out if there were any significant mana sources nearby, just in case.

Unable to think of another good place to attempt the use of the Chaos Sensors, Lillet collected her pack together and headed back across town to the Magistrate's Office. While she didn't have any run-ins like with Miss Silvaner, she did notice that the townsfolk that she passed were somewhat wary of her. Just because they hadn't seen her before, or because they knew who she was? It didn't matter too much which it was, but Lillet was curious.

The Magistrate's Guards let her into the office, but directed her to wait in an outer room for the Magistrate to call her. Lillet took the opportunity to go over in her head what she knew about the case. One, Astoria would not have notified the Royal House of Magic if she did not truly believe that Sorcery were involved in the case. Two, there had indeed been Sorcery cast in the area relatively recently. Three, the Magistrate believed that he had caught the culprits and was holding them in the cells below. Hopefully in a place small enough that there was no chance of drawing a rune... or in a place that was properly warded against Rune drawing. Probably not, which was all the more reason for Lillet to take a look. Also... something didn't quite add up with the Magistrate's actions. Lillet had a bad feeling about all of it.

After a good half-hour of waiting, Lillet started to think that the Magistrate was trying to stonewall her. Not the smartest option for him, considering that Lillet could easily remove him from his position once she returned to the Capital and her normal day-to-day duties. Just as she made the decision to stand and go downstairs herself, the Magistrate burst into the room from the outside. "Consul Blan. I apologize for keeping you waiting, but I was making sure that the inn could handle your needs. They are ready for you now."

"I wanted to speak to you, Magistrate."

"I don't know what I can do for you, other than tell you that we caught them in the act of another killing yesterday, and they were using magic to do it. The case has been satisfied to my specifications, though I'm still trying to get them to confess to the murder two days ago. I think we're all set here, and there's no need for you to burden yourself with these issues."

"I want to see them," Lillet said.

"Absolutely not," was the response.

"Perhaps you misunderstood me. I will see them."

"It is my authority to control the access to any prisoners I have that I suspect of any crime. I cannot let you possibly endanger our efforts to prove them guilty of their crimes. You may not see them."

"I am the Mage Consul," Lillet said, bringing her authority into it, even though she hated to. "My authority is over all magic-related matters in the Kingdom..."

"This case is completely under control, and there's no need-"

"_No exceptions_."

"I must insist, Consul."

Lillet fixed her best singular glare on the Magistrate. "If you believe that having the rest of the day will help your investigation, fine. But do realize that I am the final authority in this case, excepting only Her Majesty. If I believe that you're stonewalling, I can get you hauled in front of Her Majesty for _treason_." To a guilty satisfaction of Lillet's the Magistrate blanched. "I don't want to have to do that, and I agree that you need to have the freedom to do your job, but I also must have mine. I don't need to speak to them today, necessarily, but I do need to by tomorrow. When I come back tomorrow, I expect to have access to the prisoners, no matter the state of your investigation. I will attempt to not hinder you, but I _will_ speak to them. Am I clear?"

The Magistrate chewed on his lip a little bit while he thought about his response. "We will clearly talk tomorrow, then," he said finally. Lillet thought that he was being very thick about the situation that he was in, but decided that if she was going to have to usurp his authority, then she would do it all tomorrow, and take no half-measures to that end today.

"So we will," Lillet said after a short pause, mostly to let him stew a bit on her possible reactions. "My room is ready?"

"Yes, my Lady."

"Then I will retire for now. I expect to see you tomorrow afternoon, Magistrate. I also expect that your prisoners will be able to talk to me."

"I'll have one of my guards take you to the inn." A ray of the setting sun came through the door when the Magistrate opened it to speak to his guards. Lillet hoped that tomorrow she wouldn't feel like today had been such a waste.


	2. Investigator Day 2

**Investigator Day 2**

The next day dawned bright and clear, but Lillet had an uneasy feeling in her stomach as she headed down to the private dining area in the Inn where she was staying. The inn's cook immediately came and asked her what she would like for breakfast. Lillet just wanted whatever the rest of the patrons were able to have, and told the man that. He bowed and left, but poked his head back into the room immediately.

"Oh, I almost forgot, my Lady," he said, bowing again. "The town has been locked down again; the Magistrate isn't letting anyone enter or leave the town." After bowing yet again, he took his leave.

Lillet sighed, and not just because of the bowing and scraping that tended to bother her on a regular basis. She certainly knew what she was going to do once she had breakfast. She finished quickly and headed out to the Magistrate's office.

The Magistrate had been waiting for her, it seemed. "So you've heard, Consul."

"Hard not to, Magistrate. What happened?"

"Found a local woman dead. She was in her quarters, which are above her shop. We're not sure as to the cause of death yet…"

"- but you'll be understanding that I will be accompanying you to the site?" Lillet asked pointedly. She even took a small step forward to make her stare that much more imposing. And it was imposing without being right next to the Magistrate's eyes. She certainly had enough experience making sure that the people around her knew that she was competent without resorting to actually using magic. A problem with being such a young Mage Consul.

"I don't think that would be proper for the investiga-"

"I just need to determine if there was magic involved," Lillet said sweetly. "I won't do anything until you're done with your collection, so I won't have tampered with anything you normally collect from such scenes… but I'm afraid I must insist on this -"

"I don't…"

"-with all of the power of my office."

The Magistrate sighed. He seemed to have figured out that there wasn't going to be any talking out of this one with her. "I will hold you to that."

While there were a few other things that he had to do at his office, it was only a short time after that when the two of them, along with probably the rest of his guard once allowing for the lack of those keeping the town locked down, headed to the crime site. Lillet noticed immediately that she had already been to the place before. "Who is it that was found, magistrate?"

"Astoria Waldorf."

Lillet rounded on him. "Even the most basic look into her history will tell you that my office is _highly_ interested in the death of any member of the Royal House of Magic – retired or otherwise!"

"You are coming with me, are you not?" The Magistrate replied mildly.

Lillet's angry face faded into a look of stony fury. "You can be assured that your cooperation has been noted, Magistrate."

The Magistrate didn't have an answer for that, so Lillet tried to calm herself from her fury. She was the one with the power, here, after all. She couldn't let his posturing get under her skin. There would be a report to the Royal Steward of his actions once she got back to the capital, but that wasn't something that she had to think about right then.

They reached the small shop in short order and the guards spread out, looking for whatever these men looked for. The Magistrate stopped her just outside the gate, where some of the guards were erecting a perimeter. "You will wait here."

"I will do no such thing," Lillet said, proud that her voice was mild. "I am coming with you."

The Magistrate looked torn for a moment, before he relented. Probably was thinking that a treason charge from Lillet wasn't really something he wanted to deal with. As long as that remained something that frightened him, then Lillet would be able to function... somewhat... in the town.

She followed him into the shop, which was torn to ribbons. The plants that Lillet had seen meticulously laid out ready for purchase and even some in use that she recognized were on the floor in tatters. A guard came from the upstairs as the Magistrate and Consul walked in. "Sir." He saluted smartly.

"Did anybody hear anything?" the Magistrate asked him.

"No, sir. It doesn't seem that anyone who lives nearby heard anything at all." He glanced around the room. "From what I can tell, it happened in the dead of night, and most people I talked to reported sleeping soundly."

The Magistrate grunted. "And your progress here?"

The man blew out a gusty sigh. "Someone... or some_thing_... went on a rampage in here," he indicated the room around him, "before heading upstairs and goring Ms. Waldorf's stomach right out. It's... disgusting."

"Have you finished collecting evidence?"

The guard nodded. "I don't think there's anything else we'll be able to glean from here or the body. It can be disposed of."

"I'd like to see it before you do," Lillet said.

The guard looked at her. "Sir, who..." It was clear that he had been dying to ask this since he had spotted her.

"The Mage Consul Lillet Blan," Lillet said, deciding that letting the Magistrate answer was probably not the best idea. The guard's eyebrows skyrocketed.

"I apologize for being so informal, my Lady," he said, bowing.

"You must do your job," Lillet pointed out. "And I must do mine. I need to take a look at Astoria before you release her remains to her next of kin."

The Magistrate looked at her for a moment before shrugging. "As long as my detective thinks he's done collecting evidence..."

"I am, Sir."

"Then she's all yours. Tell a guard when you're finished." The guard and Magistrate left Lillet in the building alone. Lillet wondered a moment about the Magistrate's method... but then shook her head. It was going to be a long report that she filed at the end of all of this.

She headed up the stairs in the back, finding that there was no part of the building that had escaped the carnage of whatever it was. Even the stairway had clearly been torn apart. Lillet was careful, making sure that any step she took was not going to send her tumbling. It seemed amazing that the building was still standing, but maybe whatever had done this was smart enough to not hit building supports?

Arriving on the upper floor, it was easy to tell that Astoria had been in bed when she was killed. Her body was laid out on the bed, and bits and pieces of flesh laid in a tight clump around the main body. Lillet brought her hand to her mouth and nose, trying not to breathe in too much of the smell that was coming from the body.

Dropping her pack, she reached in and pulled out a small vial of red dust. A gift from the Alchemy professor Dr. Chartreuse, the dust would turn purple if spread on something that had been touched by a summon recently. Walking carefully up to the corpse, Lillet spread a little bit of the dust on the wound.

It turned lavender instantly, and slowly darkened further to a deep purple.

So that confirmed that a summon had touched Astoria recently, though given that she was a magician herself, it was not all that much proof of anything. However, since Lillet knew that Astoria was only a Glamourist and didn't use any Sorcery at all... She set up a Chaos Sensor once she was able to get the two required runes down onto the ground. This time, there was the orange glow that indicated that a Sorcerous familiar had been on that exact spot within the last twenty-four hours.

Now she was getting somewhere. Sorcery was involved, and Lillet was sure that Astoria did not use Sorcery. A quick check of any grimoires she had could confirm that analysis, but a glance at the bookshelf told Lillet that that line of thinking was foolish. Papers were scattered everywhere around the room; there was no way that she would be able to determine which Grimoires had been on the bookshelf back when it was whole. Even if that was only yesterday.

But this was enough evidence that there was magic involved. Lillet went back downstairs and told one of the guards that she was finished and the body could be released to next of kin. They told her, when she asked, that the Magistrate had returned to his office. Lillet headed straight there.

"I need to see your prisoners."

The Magistrate looked up as Lillet came into the room and opened with the demand. "I still think that this is a bad idea..."

"You don't have a choice in the matter," Lillet said, eyes narrowing.

The Magistrate sighed heavily. "Alright. Sergeant, take her down to cells three and four." The Sergeant nodded, and motioned for Lillet to follow him as he left the room. A quick jaunt through most of the rooms in the building brought the two of them to a long thin staircase downward. It quickly became apparent that moisture was very much trapped in the prison area. The dankness was permeating up from below, and it was quite a long way down the stairs. The bottom was floored in deep blue stone, and Lillet could hear dripping throughout the area, and the torches hissed even as they brought some red light to help counter the dankness... though it wasn't nearly enough to make the place comfortable.

The uniformed man led her down past the first pair of cells and to the second, where he rapped sharply on the bars with his sword hilt. "You have a visitor."

"Who's going to visit us?" came the cultured male voice from the back of the cell. Lillet recognized it instantly.

"Oh, I think the Magistrate's in more trouble than he knows, now."

The Sergeant looked at her in askance. "What do you mean?"

"Imprisoning a Prince? I didn't know he had it in him, even if he has been blocking me at every turn. Maybe this is why...?"

The Sergeant's eyes were bulging to the point that Lillet felt a little sorry for dropping this bomb on him rather than dropping it on the Magistrate himself. "A... prince...?"

"Open the cell door," Lillet instructed, before turning to Hiram. "Is Ms. Opalneria in the other cell, Highness?"

"She is, though you need not call me that, Lillet." Lillet could see Hiram smiling, though his face was filthy.

"Open both cells, then," Lillet said, as the Sergeant fumbled with his keys trying to find the one that would free the prisoners. She turned and went to the other cell, but upon seeing the occupant, she raised her eyebrows. "Mr. Advocat wasn't kidding, then."

"I assume you refer to my apparent age?" Opalneria Rain replied mildly.

Lillet heard the loud clank of the lock turning and then the creak of the door opening behind her. "It's hard to rationalize that you're the same person I met at the Silver Star Tower, Ms. Opalneria."

"You need not call me that, Lillet," she said, echoing Hiram's words. This made Lillet giggle. The Sergeant came to unlock the cell door on Opalneria's side, so Lillet returned to Hiram, who was walking out of his own cell looking (other than the grime) quite the suave young man.

"That isn't to say that I can't ask you the questions I was going to ask you anyway," Lillet said, smiling at Hiram who smiled back, "but I'd prefer if the two of you were comfortable while I did it. I'll also be wanting your opinions on things, which I didn't before I knew who you were."

"You didn't know who we were when you came down here?" Hiram asked.

Lillet nodded. "I'll leave the story until you're all set." The other door was swinging open, and Opalneria slinked out of her cell. Lillet had to hide her giggle with her hand. Opalneria certainly was playing up the sexual factor of her new age.

The Sergeant had fled up the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him, while Lillet made sure that Hiram and Opalneria went up before her so that she could catch them if they fell, since they were so weak. By the time they reached the top, The Sergeant was returning to the opening with the Magistrate in tow. He was fuming. Lillet neatly stepped past Opalneria to stand just a hint behind Hiram and to his left.

"How dare you!" the Magistrate spat at Lillet. "Making up some lies to get my prisoners out just because you believe that they're innocent of this crime-!"

"Magistrate, may I present Hiram Courvoisier, the third prince of this grand kingdom."

"Bullshit!"

"You're willing to commit treason over this, Magistrate? You've been dangerously walking the line this whole time we've been 'working together'." Lillet drew quotes in the air with her fingers. "Preventing the Mage Consul from her duties is treasonous, but you've walked that line well. If you're willing to insist here, then I will bring the full might of Her Majesty's army on this town. And I know you don't want that."

His eyes drew back to Hiram. "Why didn't you claim you were the Prince when we arrested you?"

"I did," Hiram said mildly.

The Magistrate grunted and crossed his arms. "It doesn't change the fact that he killed a fine upstanding citizen of this town in a magical battle. Many witnesses. They won't be happy with you."

"I told you before, it was self-defense-" Opalneria began, jumping to Hiram's defense, but Lillet cut her off.

"How about we let these two get cleaned up, and then I have a few questions for them before they head back to the Silver Star Tower."

The Magistrate was shaking in his anger, but he let the three of them leave and go to the Inn where Lillet ordered the staff to have a hot bath drawn up for the two of them, but after a moment asked for a third so that she could wash off the dank from her own skin as well.

Once all clean and sweet-smelling, the three met again in the parlor. Both of the former prisoners definitely looked much better once they had washed off the grime that had quickly collected on their faces. "You had questions for us, Lillet?"

"Yes. There have been many mysterious happenings around here lately, and I was wondering if you knew anything about them."

"We don't know much," Hiram said slowly. "On the day before yesterday we were accosted by a young lady who immediately attacked us with Sorcerous familiars and was drawing runes right in the middle of the street. I don't think she took a good stock of us, though once we started casting our powerful Necromancy, she switched to a primarily Glamour attack. She was good, but there was no way that she was a match for the two of us working together. Unfortunately, she would not yield, and we had to kill her in order to make sure that neither we, nor any bystanders, were hurt."

Lillet nodded. "And you told the Magistrate this?"

Hiram smiled wryly. "He doesn't seem the type to believe people readily."

Lillet rolled her eyes. "No. I will be writing a long and involved report when I return; you don't have to worry about doing anything about it. He'll be removed from power soon enough, I would think. Your mother wouldn't ignore even the stuff that he pulled before now, but this!"

"I hope he rots in Hell," Opalneria said with a bit of heat.

"Had you heard about the deaths that had something to do with Sorcery?" Lillet asked.

Hiram and Opalneria shook their heads. "We only stayed the night once, and when they wouldn't let us leave the town in the morning, people weren't quite willing to share with a couple of outsiders what was going on," Hiram said. "Then we were attacked, then arrested... we didn't really have the opportunity to learn anything about it, nor did we want to at the beginning."

"Okay. Do you think you'll leave soon, or wait until morning?" Lillet asked.

"I think we'll be gone as soon as we can get our stuff together," Hiram said. Lillet nodded, then rose. Hiram and Opalneria rose with her. "I'm sorry that we couldn't be more help for you, Lillet."

"I'm glad you're out of there now, Hiram. Opalneria."

"Don't be a stranger, Lillet. Most of the people at the Tower are fond of you, you know," Opalneria said.

Lillet bowed, then left them. It was clear that they weren't who the Magistrate had been looking for in the murders; and it couldn't have been the young woman who had attacked them working alone, as she had been dead by the time that Astoria had been murdered. And if Lillet had her facts straight, it was Amy, Astoria's apprentice, who had been using the Sorcery against Hiram and Opalneria in the first place, so even were she alive, she wouldn't kill a master who was so obviously fond of her...

So that left an obvious Sorcerer at large. With the sun still high in the sky, Lillet probably had the time to go and search for any recent use of Sorcery throughout the town with her Advents and materials. After deciding that this was her best course of action, Lillet swung by her room to get all of her supplies and slung her large pack on her back.

Searching through the town this way was painstaking and draining, mana-wise. Occasionally, she came upon a small amount, which she had a few imps collect from while another was making an advent so that she could keep going. Her winding way took her a long way from the Inn, but none of the Chaos Sensors gave her any readings that she wasn't expecting. As she swung back toward the Inn along a different route, the imp that she had walking in front of her suddenly was struck by a magic shot and dissipated into ash. Immediately Lillet brought her other three Imps to a halt and started drawing a Hell Gate where she stood. As she was finishing, she noticed a pair of Golems coming around the bend of the hill that was to her right. She finished and poured mana into the Hell Gate until a Demon, and then another, came out. The two Demons charged, largely unaffected by the Gargoyle, though still taking some damage between that and the Golems.

Using the time that the Demons were buying her, Lillet had the Imps go collect some mana from a source that was nearby and drew a Hades Gate. Once she had poured mana into the Rune, out popped three Phantoms. Lillet was now depending on the Imps, though they weren't giving her mana at the rate that she would like it. She sent the Phantoms to take out the Gargoyle while she poured what mana she had left in her stores to make more imps to collect her mana faster.

The Demons, though somewhat the worse for wear, had managed to take out the Golems, but were now faced with Phantoms. Lillet's own made quick work of the Gargoyle, but met themselves with a Skullmage. Lillet grimaced as one of the Phantoms fell instantly to the Skullmage's attack. The Demons, however, still proved more than enough for the Phantoms they faced, though now they were in bad condition. Lillet brought them around to help the Phantoms with the Skullmage, which had managed to kill two of the Phantoms and severely weaken the third before falling.

A Homunculus appeared at that point and took out all of the units that Lillet had sent out. Lillet had enough mana stored from the Imps' efforts at this point, however, that she had her own Golems out and they took out the Homunculus while they were standing next to Lillet. After the sound of broken glass, the night became silent, other than the whirrs and groans from Lillet's Golems and the chattering of her Imps. Lillet was breathing hard; it was difficult to exercise her casting this much in one day. She had the Imps finish off the mana source before sending them out in a spread pattern to determine if there were any more threats, but none of her familiars found anything.

Unable to summon much more strength, Lillet decided it was best if she headed back to the Inn as the sun dipped below the horizon. She didn't dismiss her familiars until she had gotten safely inside. The worst part about the attack that had tired her, was that the enemy, whoever or whatever it was, hadn't used any Sorcery.

She was no closer to knowing what was going on, even with all that had happened that day.

...And she definitely needed another bath.


	3. Investigator Day 3

**Investigator Day 3**

Lillet woke to a loud sound. At first, there was nothing beyond it, just the typical sounds of a late summer morning. There was a cicada just outside on the windowsill that could be easily heard. Then the loud sound came again, but this time continued. There was some sort of scuffle or fight going on downstairs.

Lillet opened her eyes and looked toward the window. The sun had peeked above the mountaintops enough that there was some light in the room, though not much. The sounds continued downstairs, and Lillet figured she probably wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep. Rising and getting ready for the day took enough time that the scuffle had cleared out of the inn by the time Lillet got down there. That seemed unfortunate, so Lillet pulled a servant aside to ask what was going on.

"Well," the young girl said, "it's that Silvaner, my Lady. She was being arrested, and she didn't really take to that, you know? She didn't go quietly at all. I'm not really supposed to be on duty until noon today, as I had a late shift." She yawned. "But with all the hulabaloo, I just _had_ to see. Did you miss it, my Lady?" Lillet assured the excitable maid that she knew all she needed to know at this point, and extracted herself from the conversation.

Another arrest. This time it was the Silvaner girl... So, if Lillet remembered correctly, she had met briefly her first day in the town, having literally run into her outside of the inn. It would make sense that she was staying there. But if she were guilty of killing anyone, wouldn't she have left when the lockdown ended? It made no sense, but then again, not much had made a lot of sense when Lillet had gone over everything she knew. As she walked to the Magistrate's office, she went over it all in her head again.

Siliam died, likely by the hand... claw... of a sorcerous creature. The following day, Siliam is discovered in her garden. The town is locked down by the Magistrate and Astoria sends a message to the Royal House of Magic. Late that day, Hiram and Opalneria were attacked by Amy in full view of the town, which makes it easy for the Magistrate to justify arresting them. The following day, Lillet arrives. Sometime that night, Astoria is killed by some sort of Sorcerous creature, probably the same way Siliam died. The next day, Hiram and Opalneria are released, and there's a few familiars wandering around without an obvious master around. And now, Silvaner is arrested, presumably for the killings.

It was clear that Lillet needed to talk to Silvaner.

Pushing her way through the door to the Magistrate's office, Lillet adopted her stern expression. She was pretty sure she was going to have to deal with the Magistrate at his most belligerent today. Lillet walked right past the atrium and right into the inner office without sparing a glance for any of the people in the atrium. The Magistrate looked up when she walked through the doorway. "I had wondered when I would see you today, Consul," he said. His voice was slightly different than it had been, though Lillet could not put her finger on why. "May I introduce you to Mr. Bonarda? He is on the Town Council here." Lillet looked to where the Magistrate was indicating and sure enough there was a man standing in the corner of the office, smoking a pipe.

He took it out of his mouth as he bowed. "Mage Consul Lillet Blan," he said with more than a hint of a lilt. "I had heard so much about you. It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

Lillet politely nodded to Mr. Bonarda. "A pleasure, Mr. Bonarda. Magistrate," she pressed on, "I heard that you arrested someone in connection with the killings?"

"I did," the Magistrate replied mildly. He was too calm... Lillet's hackles rose and a sense of danger suddenly came into her mind.

"I would like to see her for-"

"You may not."

Lillet, already alert, made no visible reaction to him cutting her off. "It is not in your power to stop me, Magistrate."

"It is, as Mr. Bonarda reminded me this morning," the Magistrate said. "I have the power to declare a time of crisis, which the five known deaths last night indicated well enough for me to enact said power. During such times, I have full authority to do whatever is necessary to keep the law in this district, and I need to keep the prisoner isolated from everyone. Including you."

Lillet studiously kept her face straight, though she had an urge to frown at the man. Five more deaths? This was getting worse and worse all the time. But that's not something she should focus on right then. "Your powers as local Magistrate do not outrank my powers as the Mage Consul of the Kingdom. My powers are directly from the crown..."

"As are mine."

"Yours are from the Lord of this district, as much as he ignores this district's well-being."

"He is right, Consul," Mr. Bonarda interjected before the Magistrate could respond. "This is an independent area. A town-state, if you will. The crown installs a Magistrate, who governs with the Town Council. It's all laid out right here" - he lifted a sheaf of papers - "in section one, article one of the town charter."

"Even were that so," Lillet replied, "The office of the Mage Consul's powers which are laid out in the canon law of the Kingdom, explicitly lays out that in matters of magic, the Mage Consul is the ultimate authority in the Kingdom; no exceptions. A town charter cannot overrule the canons, Mr. Bonarda, no matter from where they came."

"I must insist; it is a time of crisis," the Magistrate said, though his frustration was beginning to show again, which made Lillet a little less wary of what was going on.

"I must insist, Magistrate. Thus far I have managed to not have to indict you for treason. Are you going to force me to arrest you?"

"Do not anger me, Consul!" the Magistrate spat. "I have more power than you could ever imagine!" He turned to Mr. Bonarda and snarled. "Get out of here if you don't want to get yourself killed." Lillet didn't watch as the gentleman left the room quickly; she instead activated all of her defensive measures. A golem appeared next to her, as well as four elves, two phantoms and a demon. In front of her the Magistrate acquired a smile that was... inhuman.

"Silly girl... I am your superior in every way. I have power that you could never hope to possess. I have the strength to wipe you off the face of the Kingdom!" He grunted in pain as he partially transformed. His skin was turning red and his hands that were clenching the desk were turning into claws and slicing right through. "I AM RUPERT MEDOC! I AM NO MERE MAGISTRATE! I AM A GOD!" Lillet immediately drew as she ordered her initial summons to attack the still transforming Magistrate. One hand sliced right through one of the Phantoms, killing it instantly. The Elves began collecting mana from a source just outside the room, which Lillet was probably going to have to retreat from if her initial summons weren't going to be strong enough to take on the... devil, most likely. And most likely, the culprit himself.

As Lillet had plenty of mana, she immediately drew more runes and poured power into them. Shortly she had a small squad of fairies that provided cover fire for the demon, who was the only one of Lillet's initial summons that had survived to that point. Lillet also added a pair of phantoms, who she powered up with another rune; hopefully enough that they would provide more of an offense against the devil. The Devil had finished transforming into a gruesome form and while the fairies had held up reasonably well against him, they were clearly not enough. Lillet focused on creating more and stronger Phantoms, and a unicorn or three to absorb damage, while the Devil spoke.

"It is good to be awake," he said in a gravely, otherworldly voice. "I am... free again. Thanks to this human. And I have his soul too! So delicious." He raked his claws across a fairy, who fell out of the air and faded into mist with a high cry. "And all he asks is for power. Well, I can provide that. And when he told me who he wanted power over... heh..." He licked his lips as he stalked toward where Lillet had set up outside of the inner office, where now eight phantoms were ready. "When I heard it was _you_, I knew I had to do it. I had to show up Grimlet, after all." He raked his claws through one phantom, though it took more than one swipe to fell it.

Lillet grunted with the effort of the mana she was pouring into the battle. While she had expected to be attacked, she hadn't expected it to be the Magistrate. She hadn't expected that she would be attacked now. While her initial summons had bought her precious time, it seemed that it hadn't been nearly enough. The Devil took some pretty nasty hits from the Phantoms, but kept wiping through them, and then through some of Lillet's initial runes. And the elves. Down to two Phantoms, then three, then two... one...

Then she was held up by the throat with one blood red claw. Lifted into the air, gasping for breath that would not come through her compressed wind pipe. Tossed aside like a doll, Lillet hit the wall with enough force to blow through part of it, not even sinking all the way to the floor. Her consciousness was fading as the blurry shape of red approached her. "Let it be known," she heard it say, "that the upstart human that bested Grimlet was bested in turn by Beelzebub."

Darkness; dankness. She couldn't see anything, but hearing remained in fits and starts. The shutting of a prison door after a sharp pain in her side and head. She was in bad shape. A cry from another cell. Words; heated ones. "We should kill her now!"

"No, we need her," that was the Devil – Beelzebub's – voice. "She will be useful for our plan. Besides, I can get her soul now in exchange for her living on a bit."

"She's too dangerous! I couldn't take care of her without your Power."

"What else do you have me for?"

"You should kill her; she has shown herself to be resourceful in the past."

"I can take care of her."

"Fine, you never want my advice anyway. Do what you want."

Silence, then, vision returned partially just as the cell door opened. "Eh, he's probably right. I should kill you, girl."

And Lillet could do nothing when the claw tore out her throat. Vision faded to blackness, then turned to colors swirling around her... blues and greens tore at her vision... though her eyes were closed. She felt nothing but a floating, swirling sensation, and then... nothing.

_I'd seen it once before, but I ignored it._

_I'd heard of it once before, but I didn't believe it._

_I'd been a part of it once before, but I didn't experience it._

_I'd done it all before, but I couldn't have predicted..._

_Tomorrow's sunrise... is it my last?_

Tomorrow... **Bystander**


	4. Bystander The Night Before

**Bystander The Night Before**

Hiram Courvoisier stood on the crest of the latest hill. "I think I see the town, Opalneria," he called back to his partner. "It can't be any more than a mile." He turned fully around as Opalneria crested the hill beside him.

"Good. My feet are starting to really get on my nerves," she said. "I wish that I could make the aches go away as easily as I could my wrinkles!"

"You should work on that, then," Hiram told her as he started forward again. "Just don't get too distracted from the samples we collected from the Tyranus Ruins. We collected quite the haul; we wouldn't want all of that work to go to waste."

"Or my feet to ache in vain," Opalneria agreed. "I'll be fine once we've gotten into the inn and I can put my feet up on something soft for the rest of the night."

Hiram smiled. Opalneria smiled back. Hiram delved into the subject of the samples of magical objects that they had in their packs and the plans to study them back at the Silver Star Tower, with an eye to keeping Opalneria's mind on something other than her feet. It seemed to be working, as she participated in the conversation without any more complaints before they reached the first line of buildings along the road.

"Mmm... even the road is helpful to my feet," Opalneria sighed in relief. "Just a bit further. This inn is the one with the nice baths, isn't it?" While Hiram nodded, it didn't seem like Opalneria was looking for any input on this. "I can't wait to get a good warm soak. It's amazing that they can get hot water out here in the middle of nowhere so easily."

"It is a very commonly traveled road by the well-to-do. It wouldn't do to lack a warm bath for traveling dignitaries. Besides, being the inn with that capability, they can basically command whatever price they want for lodging. Most nobles would pay whatever was required for the kind of service that they are used to in their homes, when on the road." Hiram said this while he looked around at the quaint buildings that surrounded the road to the west.

"I know that, Hiram. Just let me think about how wonderful it will feel to have a warm bath..." Opalneria sighed again, but this time was cut off by nearly running into a young woman.

"Oh!" the woman said. "I'm so sorry! I didn't see you! I just go walking and not pay attention where I'm going far too often when I'm upset, you see, and..." the woman caught sight of their faces, and registered surprise for a fleeting instant... no... that was probably Hiram's imagination. It was probably embarrassment "and I nearly walked right into you! Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Opalneria told her. "Go on. We're fine."

"I'm terribly sorry," the woman said, bowing. Then she was past them, walking west along the road, still not paying all that much attention to where she was going.

"Have you seen her before?" Hiram asked Opalneria as the talkative young woman walked away.

Opalneria looked at Hiram questioningly. "No... not that I know of." She shrugged. "Maybe one of your many admirers before you hid out at the Silver Star Tower?"

Hiram huffed. "I didn't have admirers!" He continued toward the inn at a faster pace. "You're making things up."

"I bet you did have admirers," Opalneria challenged, and despite her complaints earlier about her feet, she kept up with his brisk pace just fine. "You're cute when you're in your leadership mode. And your mother probably made sure that you were in leadership mode anytime she let you outside."

Hiram leveled a glare at Opalneria, but she seemed to take this in stride. In fact, it was clear she was having fun.

They reached the inn in short order. The woman on duty recognized them from their earlier visit, and immediately had other servants in to help them with their things. "Don't take anything out of the packs and be careful with them!" Opalneria barked to general consent. The woman took the two of them to the baths and promised that towels would be ready for them when they decided to get out.

After cleaning himself and a nice long warm soak, Hiram exited the bath area in one of the provided robes. Before he could head up to the room, though he heard a very familiar voice.

"Don't worry! I'll be back in a few minutes. Really, there's no need for you to come with me while I do this!" The undisciplined but lyric tone of none other than Bartido Ballentyne. He was speaking to a servant. "You stay here and make sure everything is ready for a quick departure tomorrow morning."

"Sir, you're making me nervous. What if something happens while you are out? What if you need something quickly? I would prefer if there were one or two of your retinue with you to handle such possibilities."

"I will be fine," Bartido said, lengthening the last word significantly. "You worry too much. I'll be back shortly. Keep everything running smoothly while I'm gone." The servant didn't protest any further, and Bartido left, all without noticing that Hiram was standing in the doorway of the bathhouse.

"What is he up to now?" Hiram muttered under his breath, but he shook his head. The man was a legitimate diplomat now, operating as one of the primary means of communication between his country and the Kingdom. If he bumped into Bartido before leaving tomorrow, then he might talk to him a bit about things. For old times' sake. But tonight he had very particular plans.

He headed up the stairs, completely relaxed. Opalneria would probably still be in the bath, but she would join him soon enough for the evening.


	5. Bystander Day 1

**Bystander Day 1**

The morning didn't dawn so much as the rain got a little easier to see in. Hiram frowned at it, hoping vainly that it would make a difference to the sight. To think he wanted to take a walk with Opalneria later.

"Has the sun risen?" Opalneria asked from behind him.

"I think so," Hiram replied. "But I'm not sure. It's not the clearest day."

He felt her come alongside him at the window. "I thought I heard rain."

"Doesn't sound like the most fun day to travel," Hiram said.

"Eh, we have the carriage now," she reminded him. "We don't have to get wet for the whole journey."

"Doesn't make it any easier for the driver, or the horses."

Opalneria chuckled. "No, I guess it doesn't. But that's why they're paid, hmm?"

Hiram turned his frown on her. "I'd rather not put them through something I'm barely willing to put myself through. Even for pay."

Opalneria huffed. "So that means we stay here for today?"

Hiram sighed. "Yes, but not for that reason." He turned back to the window.

In fact, that morning the innkeeper had sheepishly told Hiram as he was trying to prepare the carriage that the road out of Sallah was closed. The local Magistrate had closed it in order to more easily track the movements of people in town, looking for some criminal. He related all of this to Opalneria. "So even if we wanted to try anyway, we can't until the road opens."

"Did he know when it would open again?"

"No. Apparently the Magistrate has stated 'as long as it needs to be closed', or similar." Hiram shrugged. "I'm not going to complain too much about having a nice bed to sleep in for two nights before heading out on the road."

Opalneria snorted. "I'll be complaining less than you."

Of course, this left the question of what they wanted to do for the day. "I guess I can take out some of the more benign samples that we have stored away, and do simple tests on them," Opalneria said. "Not having a lab while we're stuck here is unfortunate, but there's not much we can do about it."

"Go ahead. I'll probably join you later," Hiram told her.

"Oh? You have something that you want to do in town today?"

Hiram acquired a wry smile. "An old friend. I figure I should pay him a visit as long as I'm here."

Opalneria regarded him carefully for a moment. "Do I know this old friend?"

Hiram thought for a moment. It wasn't like Opalneria hated Bartido, or vice versa, but they tended to not have the best encounters. A little white lie here wouldn't hurt anything. "No," he said. "He's a political ally to mother." The only lie was the denial. That should be small enough.

"Alright then," Opalneria said, instantly becoming disinterested when politics were mentioned. "Do have fun with that, then. I'll be in here tinkering, most likely."

Hiram smiled his thanks and then left the room to go downstairs. He shrugged on his raincloak as he descended, looking around the inn's main room. There were quite a few guests around, including the young woman who had nearly run into Opalneria the previous evening. She came out of the room on the far side from the stairs on the ground level. It seemed like there were a couple smaller rooms there, probably for the kinds of patrons that were not quite so highly paying.

Hiram wondered for a moment whether that meant that the young woman wasn't allowed warm baths, but decided that, in the end, he didn't care what the options that the inn offered its patrons.

Of all the guests that were present, however, he did not see Bartido among them. He probably was out doing something. Perhaps something to do with the conversation that Hiram had overheard him having with his servant the night before. Hiram headed out into the driving rain, though he was unsure where he should go. Just that he knew that Bartido was out and about, and there was a chance he could find him.

Not a very good chance, but he knew that he would get very claustrophobic if he remained in the hotel for too long. Even if there was a better chance to catch Bartido in the hotel...

Hiram took the trip as a bit of a stroll. It was a little bit of a trial on his traveling boots, but they seemed to be holding up at least well enough to keep his feet dry (they had better considering how much he'd paid for them during his last trip to visit his mother).

He didn't really expect to encounter someone else who was trying to be on a very similar stroll. Without a raincoat. Or boots. And he wasn't any older than ten.

When Hiram approached, the boy turned to look up at him, completely unfazed about the drops striking him in the face and even his eyes. Didn't even blink. He was... staring up at him, and his gray eyes made it even more creepy. Hiram was taken aback by the child for a few seconds, but he recovered quickly enough. "Why are you out in this rain without a coat or something?" he asked.

"What is rain?" the boy said without inflection.

Hiram rolled his eyes. A smart aleck in addition to being incredibly creepy. He grabbed the boy by the collar. "You'll catch yourself a cold, kid," he said as he pulled the completely willing kid into the nearest building.

The building turned out to be a shop for various herbs and other Glamour-related items, and it was staffed by an elderly woman who looked up when the two entered. "Cavan?" she asked when she spotted the boy. She looked to Hiram's face and obviously took a read of him. "Thank you for getting him out of the rain, young man." She came bustling over to the pair of them.

A voice came from up the stairs. "Who's here, Astoria?"

"A nice young man brought Cavan in from the rain, Amy," the shopkeeper – Astoria – said. She had taken control of the boy – Cavan – and was fussing over him with a towel she had grabbed off the shelf.

This "Amy" came down the stairs. An attractive young woman who was at least a little younger than Hiram, she looked... it was hard to explain in his head, but Hiram likened her expression to something that he had seen on Lillet more than once back in the Silver Star Tower.

Astoria took Hiram's attention when she directed a question at him. "Would you like to stick around for some tea? I haven't seen you around before, and since travelers are stuck here until the Magistrate lifts the restrictions..."

"She wants to thank you in some way," Amy said, coming over with a smile. "We're always grateful for people who watch out for Cavan."

"I see," Hiram said. He then acquired a grin when he realized what he was about to say. "May I take a rain check? I'm currently looking for a friend of mine, but I can come back later if the road isn't ready..."

"Come back any time," Astoria told him. "Just do please tell us your name before you duck back into the rain."

"Hiram."

"Thank you, Hiram," Astoria said. Both she and Amy bowed to him while Cavan wandered over to one of the plant displays. "I hope we will have the opportunity to see you again."

And as Hiram stepped back out into the drenching elements, he found that he hoped the same.

The town was picturesque, having a main thoroughfare with everything from cottages to shopfronts of various things that could be used up over any long trek. All the shops were open, but the hawkers were hard to hear if they were shouting at all; the rain seemed to be keeping people inside. They were probably open anyway because people were stuck at the inns in town, and the captive audience was too much of a possibility. Besides, they were able to stay inside their buildings rather than being forced to come out.

Hiram did think that the town would be a more enjoyable sight if the clouds and rain were not blocking visibility.

Hiram went all the way down to the end of the block, where he could see the barrier that was preventing people from going south out of the town. He turned around and started heading back to the inn. It was clear that whatever Bartido was doing, he hadn't been able to spot him during his little outing. Why had he thought it would be that easy to meet him out here, anyway?

He had just thought this when he spotted his friend.

There he was, standing on the porch of some poor sap. Both of them were arguing about something. It figured, considering Bartido's tendencies, that he would go off and have an argument against the express wishes of his retinue. Though he probably was not in any danger, and least not so much as any person with magical power and training. Hiram, after all, had bound the spirits of three phantoms that he could call to his aid at any time. Against a determined magical attack, it was only a stall tactic, but it would be plenty for a sudden thing, as long as one didn't get hit from behind. Against his own will, Hiram checked behind him, making sure that all that was behind him were falling droplets. When he turned his attention back to the porch, the door slammed shut and Bartido was looking at him with a wry grin on his face.

"I didn't know you were in town," Bartido said when he was close enough that the rain wouldn't drown out his words. "And I also didn't expect you to come out in this driving rain."

"Anything's better than being cooped up when you've been deep inside ruins for the past few days," Hiram replied, shaking Bartido's proffered hand. "It's good to see you, old friend."

"And you. I imagine you're staying at the only inn that is worth mentioning here?"

"Yes, that's when I spotted you, though I didn't get the opportunity to catch you until now."

"Wonderful! Let's head back together; my staff is probably going to look down his nose and lecture at me as it is." Bartido sighed. "Can't a man just take care of his business without having to deal with servants?"

"Why do you think I got out of that sort of thing?" Hiram asked. "And what business did you need to take care of?"

"Speaking to an old friend of mine," Bartido said. "Nothing to worry about. I am glad to see you, though I hope you're not here alone? My, your mother would be angry."

Hiram had to close his eyes. It was both comfortable and infuriating to have Bartido return to teasing so quickly as they walked back to the inn. "Opalneria is here."

"Oh? Oh! You did mention ruins. Research project, I'm guessing."

"Yes," Hiram said. "Not that we found much that would be of an interest to Dr. Chartruse, but there's probably something that'll take up his attention for more than an hour."

Bartido laughed. "What's the latest obsession? He never could get himself to do anything that resembled multitasking…"

"I don't keep track of these things," Hiram told him. "I always could ask you, or him, if I ever cared to know."

"True! Completely true," Bartido readily agreed.

"Cavan!" came a familiar voice. Hiram looked toward the voice's source and discovered that the young woman from the shop was coming out from the shop, calling the boy's name. "Cavan!"

"He ran off again?" Hiram asked when she had walked up to them.

"Yes," Amy said, frowning. "He's been hard to handle all day. Have you seen him?" Both of the young men shook their heads. Amy cursed quietly. "Thank you anyway." Then she froze.

Hiram could easily hear why; a howl that chilled his blood echoed between the houses. All three of them looked around, trying to determine where the howl came from. This, understandably, made Amy more frantic. "And then there's the beast. I _really_ have to find Cavan; excuse me." She ran off in the direction that Hiram and Bartido had come from. "Cavan!" she called once again.

Hiram and Bartido looked at each other, both with clearly the same thought on their mind. _Beast?_ That didn't bode well.

Bartido shook his head, as if to clear it. "Probably a wolf; I think there have been a few packs of those in this area before."

"All the same..." Hiram began, but Bartido knew what he was going to say.

"We should probably get back inside the inn, yeah," Bartido said. "You know a servant is just waiting for that lecture."

"I imagine you give them the opportunity quite a bit," Hiram said.

"A joke! What happened? Did you hit your head?"

Hiram gave into one of his more base impulses and shoved Bartido.

"Hey, that could be an international incident, you know."

"Please. I can shove my best friend when he's goading me."

"A fair point, my friend. A fair point." Bartido opened the door to the inn and held it open for Hiram, then sighed as he walked through himself. "I can already see the lucky servant. It was good to see you, Hiram. Hopefully next time I won't be soaked, or about to be taken to task by a lowly servant..."

And with that, they separated. The lecture didn't happen in public, or at least, Hiram hoped it wouldn't, so he knew he'd have some time to ask the innkeeper about the status of the roads. "Excuse me," he said to the proprietor when Hiram spotted him walking out of the kitchen. "Any news on the roads and when they'll be open again?"

The proprietor shook his head. "Not yet. I'll ask the Magistrate one more time before dinner, but I don't think I'll get anything out of him. He seems like he's stumped."

Hiram thanked the man and went upstairs to dry off. Maybe he could get some extra towels from the bath people... though the last thing he wanted was a bath.

He didn't feel like he was completely dry even an hour after shedding his cloak and plopping himself down in the room he was sharing with Opalneria. His hair was certainly still slick, no matter how many towels he got his hands on. At least Opalneria had been productive with her time in the room, and wasn't all that interested in why Hiram had bothered to get himself soaked for some friend.

She was interested in any updates on how stuck they were, though.

"No updates from the innkeeper about it, and I certainly haven't seen the Magistrate around myself." He looked out the window. The rain was abating, though it was still dark outside. "I'm glad that we didn't leave today though. You know one of the wheels would have gotten stuck, and we'd have been even more bored."

"I'm not bored."

"All the better, then."

Opalneria smiled at him before returning her attention to her specimen.

Hiram leaned back into his chair. He was also glad that he had the opportunity to talk to Bartido, but the argument that he had watched bothered him. Why did Bartido, a diplomat of some import in the Kingdom, as an official ambassador, want to talk to someone who lived in a back alley of a crossroads town? Or have some kind of argument with? Bartido had said it was a friend of his... but what kind of person who would be friends of a foreign diplomat would live in a place like this?

And that was saying nothing about the beast that the young woman had talked about. Or the creepy kid who didn't seem completely alright. It was probably for the best that they were stuck from the trip's point of view... but Hiram hoped that the roads would be open the next day. He didn't think he would be taking that walk outside with Opalneria. Instead, maybe he'd take a look at one of the samples that Opalneria had out; that would probably get his mind off of things.


	6. Bystander Day 2

**Bystander Day 2**

The following day dawned with a lot more clarity than the previous day – a fact that was appreciated by Opalneria. She had even thrown open all of the curtains in the room that they were renting (now far longer than they had originally intended), waking Hiram in a most unsatisfactory manner.

Hiram would later appreciate the sunlight, once he was completely awake. The even that truly woke him up though, was not one that he'd prefer to repeat.

"What?" Opalneria shouted, bringing the curious gaze of everyone that was loitering in the foyer. "We're stuck here? Again?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, but the Magistrate is insistent that the roads remain closed for the remainder of his investigation into the recent murders. There were more last night, after all."

"More murders?" Opalneria asked, still shouting."There are murders in this town, and you're keeping guests here?"

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but there's nothing that I can-" The poor man was cut off by Opalneria, who thankfully decided that there had been enough shouting.

"Come, Hiram. I think we have ourselves an appointment with the local Magistrate," Opalneria said before strolling out of the inn.

Hiram cringed, then turned to the unfortunate worker. "Where is the Magistrate's office?"

"Sir? You're actually going to go and talk to the Magistrate about this?"

"I really don't have much of a choice in the matter. Could you tell me where he is so that I can direct her wrath more effectively than at whoever gets unlucky enough to be in her way?"

Apparently seeing the wisdom of this course of action, the worker told Hiram that the Magistrate's office was located in a building that was just down the street from the inn. Hiram thanked him for the information before leaving the inn and looking from side to side to see if he could find Opalneria. When he found her, he found the most intriguing sight.

Opalneria Rain was having a staring contest (though Opalneria was more glaring than staring) with the young boy from the previous day.

Hiram paused, at first unsure as to what to do when confronted with this sight, but quickly decided that the best course was to tell Opalneria where the Magistrate's office was. "Opalneria," he began, but that was as far as he got.

"Hiram, something's wrong with this boy."

"Opalneria, you're being rude," Hiram said. "Cavan, are you alright?"

The boy looked at him. "All is not right." Monotone, and not quite sensical. Yep, definitely the boy from yesterday.

"Definitely wrong, though I'm not sure why or how," Opalneria said.

"_Please_ stop this, Opalneria."

She frowned, but allowed Hiram to lead her away from Cavan. Once they were out of earshot, Opalneria whispered harshly at him. "How do you know him?"

"I met him on my walk yesterday."

"Was he saying insane things then, too?" Opalneria asked.

"Yes. You're probably right in that something is very wrong with him. But that's not why you ran out here, is it?"

Opalneria blinked, then bit her thumb. "No, no it's not what I am out here to do, but I can't just not care."

"So what's next, then? We probably aren't going to convince the Magistrate to open the road..."

"We could if you told him who you are," Opalneria countered.

"I don't _want_ to tell him who we are."

"Even if it will save our lives?" Opalneria said with some heat.

"Are we really in as much danger as the average member of this community?" Hiram asked calmly. "We're two very accomplished Necromancers. We would not have any trouble with something that would be very dangerous for someone who was not schooled in magic."

"That doesn't change that it is dangerous here, and we should leave if at all possible," Opalneria said. "Just because we're better prepared for an attack on our lives doesn't mean that we should welcome the opportunity!"

She had a point, but was one last reason. "So I, as a prince of this Kingdom, should abandon my people because I personally want to be saved from being in danger."

Opalneria narrowed her eyes. "That was low."

"But it's true. If I pull that card, then I have to prepared for the consequences of being known that I was here and used it to leave. That would not be what my duty is, if I'm here as a prince of the realm. While if I'm just here as a researcher from the Silver Star Tower, there's no good reason to exempt me and my partner and retinue from the same lockdown that everyone else is in."

Opalneria sighed. "Great. Now I have to go prepare a few more summons that will allow me to survive a sneak attack. It's a good thing that personal wards aren't hard to set up once you've done it once." She further grumbled as the two of them headed back to the inn.

When the two of them walked in, the poor doorman who had taken Opalneria's ire earlier looked up quickly. Once Opalneria had taken most of the stairs up toward their room, Hiram gave what he hoped was a reassuring thumbs up, but realized belatedly that the man might not know what he meant by it. He walked over to him and said under his breath. "Crisis averted. For now." The young man gave a relieved laugh.

* * *

"Do you feel safe enough to go for a little walk?" Hiram asked.

Opalneria looked at him as if measuring him. "Fine. It is a very beautiful day after all. Do you have some wards up?"

"Of course," Hiram said. "No matter what you think of my decision to stay, I'm not interested in becoming a permanent resident."

Opalneria had a wry grin at this. "True... true enough."

Opalneria led the way downstairs, then out into the still sunny and now nearly cloudless day. While walking beside Opalneria was always an enjoyable experience, there was a little too much uncertainty and tenseness between the two of them because of the recent events for it to be completely without stress. But, being able to walk leisurely and take in the town that Hiram had already figured out was picturesque the previous day was completely worth the mild worry that he had in the back of his mind. Plus, with the worry nagging at them, neither of them completely lost themselves in any given sight. And both of them noticed when there was someone following them.

Hiram first noticed when they were walking along one of the side alleys, looking at a particularly well colored roof that fit so well with the perfect blue sky. Out of the corner of his eye, there was someone watching the two of them from behind the adjacent house. Hiram had to wait until they were walking along the alley again before he could whisper to his partner. "Do you see the guy watching us?"

"I'd wondered when you'd notice," Opalneria said under her breath to him as she walked along like they were still discussing shingles. "I think I know a way that we can trick him into running directly into us. You just need to follow me as I decide suddenly to run between the two houses ahead of us on the right."

Hiram looked, and there were in fact two houses that were particularly close to one another and had to be the two that Opalneria was talking about. "Okay, I'm in. Just don't drag me? I'll follow like a henpecked boy."

"But that's what you are," Opalneria said with humor and at a much more normal volume. "Completely wrapped around my little finger."

Hiram opened his mouth to respond, but decided better of it at the last second. Opalneria, unfortunately noticed and he felt her hand pat his head. "Aw, it's okay to know when you have been outwitted."

Hiram turned a mild glare at her, but she was already looking between the houses that they had made it to. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Look at that!" And off she went. Moving extremely quickly.

_Hiram_ was going to lose sight of her at that rate. "Wait!" he called, and he wasn't acting anymore. He had to go to almost full speed in order to get through the alley between the two houses. When he got through he ducked to the opposite side that Opalneria had ducked and stayed out of sight of the small space and looked at Opalneria. She put a finger to her lips, but it was unnecessary. Hiram could already hear the hurried footsteps of someone coming between the two houses.

The man came through, then noticed that the two of them were right there looking at him and made a sound not unlike "eep!" before he made to run away, but Hiram was quick enough to get a hold of his lower arm. "Hold on, there," Hiram said. "We just wanted to ask you a couple questions..."

It was at this point that Hiram recognized the man. It was the same guy that he had watched argue with Bartido the previous day in the rain. He was even wearing the same hat. "Oh!" the man said. Then he laughed, sounding only slightly nervous at this point. "I'm sorry, you two just looked so... romantic. It made me smile, so I wanted to watch you on my walk."

"So when you lost us, you decided that running after us was the best course of action?" Opalneria asked. "When it was just something that fell into your lap and you were doing randomly on your 'walk'? No. Try again."

The man visibly swallowed as he looked at Opalneria's fierce expression. Then he blushed. "You know why I'm following you," he said quietly. "Do I have to say it out loud?"

"When there are people being killed in this town? Yes." Opalneria was not backing down on this one.

He cringed, but didn't argue the point. "You-" he was talking to Opalneria. "You're a very... attractive woman." It was like he was dragging each word out. "You're... not from around here, so I really only had this one shot to look at you and-"

"Alright, that's enough," Hiram said. He really didn't want to hear any more details about this voyeur's thoughts.

"As flattering as your confession is," Opalneria said. "Perhaps when there's a murderer loose, it would be best to not be doing something like this?"

This didn't seem to phase the guy as much as Hiram thought it should have. "There's always a murderer about around here. Has been as long as I can remember. I mean, between the rumors about the Beast and the fact that people are dying daily, that's new but... we're always in danger here... at some point you just have to go back to living your life, you know?"

Hiram and Opalneria exchanged a glance. Hiram certainly didn't want to think about that too hard, but the fact that anyone in this town could take such a situation in _stride_... that was unacceptable. Perhaps he would have to talk to the Magistrate... just not for the reason that he might have that morning.

Hiram let the man go. "You're an idiot, but you're not dangerous. I only have one more question."

"How do you know Bartido Ballentyne?"

The man froze for a moment, then he said. "I don't know what you're talking about." Then he walked away quickly, looking back every few steps tp make sure that the two others were not following him.

Hiram shook his head. When he opened his eyes he noticed that Opalneria was looking at him with her eyes slightly narrowed. "Why did you ask that last question?" she asked, deceptively mildly.

"I'd seen him before," Hiram said, his mind working as fast as it ever had. "It wasn't important, which is why I let go of him before asking. I was curious."

Opalneria continued to study him for a few seconds before she sighed. "I'm sorry; I need to remind myself that I've not always been with you, and that there are experiences you have that I haven't had with you."

Hiram beamed at her, and not just because she was letting him off the hook on his misdirection. "Thank you. You're doing well with that, and I really appreciate it."

Opalneria gave him a subdued smile before the two of them continued on their walk. Hiram hoped that the rest of it, at least, would not be as eventful as the first part of it had.

* * *

Of all of the advantages to being stuck in Sallah, by far Hiram's favorite was the opportunity to take a nice warm bath when he wanted to. And he did want to. Hopefully it was the last night before they would be underway once again, and Hiram would rather be clean of all grime when they hit the road. There was nothing worse than starting a travel day already dirty.

After their walk, Hiram and Opalneria had spent the rest of the day in their room experimenting on one of the more peculiar artifacts that they had unearthed. Since they had made some progress on identifying an approximate date for the piece, Hiram felt pretty good about how the two of them had used the time effectively.

As Hiram left the bath, sighing in contentment, he saw Opalneria head upstairs after her own. He smiled at her, received a smile in return, and then she had ascended the stairs out of sight. When he started his own walk from the door to the bath to the stairs, he noticed that there was a young woman sitting at a table. After a moment, he recognized her as the one who had bumped into Opalneria... was it really two days ago? It simultaneously felt longer and shorter than that. Ignoring such topics, he noticed the the young woman was staring at him. It occurred to him that he was also staring, and that might have been why she was staring.

He shook his head as if to clear it. There was nothing wrong with that young woman; she had a ghost of a smile on her face, but it was a pleasant look on her face. He inclined his head in apology, greeting and farewell before ascending the stairs himself.

After all, quite the woman was waiting for him in his room.


	7. Bystander Day 3

**Bystander Day 3**

The following day, Hiram decided to handle the news a little differently.

Once he had found out from the proprieter that the roads remained closed, Hiram did not return to the room and wait for Opalneria to rise, like he had the previous two mornings. Instead, he strode out of the inn toward the local Magistrate's office. He was met outside by a guard who held up his hand. "I'm sorry, sir, but we are very busy with the latest deaths and we can't..."

Hiram cut him off. "Please tell the Magistrate that Prince Hiram Courvoisier is here and wishes to speak with him at the earliest convenient time."

The guard stared at him a moment, at first annoyed at being interrupted, then shocked at what had been said to him. The guard finally turned to the other one on duty, who nodded to him, then walked inside. Hiram was left with the staring guard. He hated being stared at, but it made good practice for returning to court... which he had to do from time to time. Not that he minded the way his mother had worded the request – he missed her as well, after all – but after being in the Tower for so long as just Hiram, another magician, he found that he greatly preferred it. He hoped that his own gaze back at the guard was impassive.

The other guard came back and waved Hiram in, leading him to a room in the back that was not unlike many studies for noblemen – or men who wanted to be noblemen. The man behind the desk regarded him over steepled fingers. Hiram wondered if that was meant to intimidate him if he were an imposter.

"The prince, hmm? To what do I owe the honor of your visit?" the Magistrate asked.

"While I was hoping that you would have successfully apprehended the culprit for the crimes that you continue to hold the roads for by this morning, I awoke to find that you hadn't. As a prince of this land, I cannot simply stand by and watch any longer. I wish to help you in your investigation, if you believe that I can be of service."

The Magistrate sized up Hiram for quite a long time before responding. "No, I do not think that is wise. Either you are Prince Hiram, and therefore too important to endanger during this investigation, or lying to me, and therefore I cannot trust you." He sighed. "I actually believe you are telling the truth, though, considering what I know both of you and the crazy situation that we find ourselves in." He then suddenly looked at Hiram shrewdly. "May I ask why you haven't left yet? You know very well that I couldn't hold you here, given who you are."

"I cannot abandon my countrymen," Hiram said simply.

"That settles it, Your Highness." The Magistrate stood and bowed deeply enough that he could have kissed the papers on his desk. When he rose, he gestured for Hiram to sit in the chair facing the desk, then waited for Hiram to sit before he did. "I cannot risk your life, and it is becoming increasingly clear that risking one's life may be an inevitability in this case. I implore you to stay at the Inn as much as you can; no one staying there has been affected yet, and it may be relatively safe there."

"I might remind you that I am a Necromancer of some note, and travel with a Professor at the Silver Star Tower, who is also a Necromancer. We would be in little danger from anything but a concerted magical attack."

"I'm becoming increasingly afraid that this case involves quite a bit of magic, though as unversed in it as I am, I would not be able to tell you what kind," the Magistrate told Hiram. "I have sent a runner to the nearest member of the Mage Society, but that could take days."

"There's not a member closer?"

"There was a retired member," the Magistrate allowed. "But she was killed last night, along with several other victims."

Hiram frowned and thought a bit. Why did the Magistrate only think to call a member of the Mage Society once it was basically out of reach for several days?

"It is in no one's best interests to have you die here, Your Highness," The Magistrate said, rising. "If you would like, I will let you know if there's any magic that needs to be done that doesn't involve putting you in danger, but that's all I would feel comfortable having you do."

Hiram sighed as he rose as well. "That is a shame, Magistrate, as I would be far more prepared for a magical danger than you would be, it seems."

"But I would not be the greater loss to the Kingdom," the Magistrate said. "Please. Stay out of this, for your own safety."

Hiram bowed, then left the room, disappointed, but not all that surprised with the Magistrate's reaction.

That didn't change that he wanted to do something about the problems in Sallah, though.

When Hiram returned to the inn, he found Bartido and that young lady – Silvaner? - playing a card game at one of the tables. On a whim, he came over and sat at the table. "Morning, Bartido. I guess we're all still stuck here another day."

"Of course," Bartido replied, playing a card. "But I must stay being stuck here has advantages where there are good ladies about."

Silvaner quirked an eyebrow. "Oh, you're talking about me now?"

Bartido leaned over to Hiram, but stage whispered. "She's a tough nut to crack."

Silvaner huffed.

"Miss... Silvaner, was it?" Hiram asked.

"Gertrude, please."

"Gertrude, then," Hiram allowed. "May I ask what you are doing in Sallah that unfortunately got you stuck here?"

She shrugged. "Just passing through. I never intended on staying here for more than a few days, but I ended up staying one day too many. It's hard when you don't have the opportunity to stay at such a nice inn every night."

"You're not sticking to the road?" Bartido asked. "I mean, that's too bad. To the west, I'd be able to escort you along for a while, and Hiram east, since he's heading to the Silver Star Tower."

"Oh, you're headed home, Bartido?" Hiram asked.

"Yeah," Bartido said as Gertrude played her next card. "Home to visit the family, pass messages back from the crown, take new ones from ours. The whole life of a diplomat thing. I'm in this town quite a bit, it seems. It's nice, though since I have a few friends in town."

"Like that cousin of yours you were telling me about," Gertrude said, stopping Bartido in his tracks as he tried to play a card. A moment later the card slapped to the table deliberately.

"Cousin?" Hiram asked. "I didn't know that there was anyone in this town related to you, Bartido?"

"The guy you saw me talking to. He's my cousin," Bartido said, with his trademark grin back on his face, though Hiram remained unsure it had ever left. "His parents want him to come home to them, but he wants nothing to do with them. I always bring it up, which he probably doesn't appreciate much." He smiled more genuinely at Gertrude. "As I was saying, it is too bad that you aren't leaving such that we'd be able to escort you."

Gertrude gave Bartido the once-over with her eyes. "Mmm, I doubt I'd care to be escorted by you, noble or not. Your friend, maybe."

"Ah, but good Hiram's taken!" Bartido said. "And so far as I know, it was a long time in coming."

"Almost too long," Hiram admitted. "What with the fact that I might have died several times before it ever happened; I only admitted feelings for her shortly _after _our favorite Mage Consul arrived at the Tower, meaning that there were probably several times that I didn't."

Bartido's eyes flickered to Gertrude, who just looked vaguely troubled. "Yeah, well, the Archmage left a lot of -" the word Bartido used made one of Gertrude's eyebrows disappear into her hairline, and both of Hiram's "- to clean up after. We were lucky it was Lillet, really. But since I want to save compliments for the Mage Consul while she's present, why don't we talk about something else?"

"How about why your cousin decided to settle here, of all places?" Gertrude asked.

Bartido shrugged. "How would I know? He's just a strange one."

"In your family? He must fit right in."

Bartido feigned great shock, even dropping his cards so he had to pick them all up (though Hiram noticed that he was never able to see what any of them were). "A joke! From Hiram! That's two while we've been here, right? You really must be mellowing out. I knew that getting a girl would be good for you."

"Though you did try to warn me away from her."

"What did you expect me to do? Encourage pining after one of our teachers? That doesn't really feel like the best idea in the world when you're students and you're watching that particular teacher go nuts over every perceived slight from another teacher that she was in love with."

Hiram laughed. "True. But it all worked out in the end."

"Better than I could have hoped, my friend." Bartido lifted his mug in a salute to Hiram before taking a drink.

"What's your cousin's name?" Gertrude asked once Bartido had put down his mug.

"Grot Greenham," Bartido said. "Why? Do you not like the way I act, but like the way I look and are hoping for a better catch?"

"No, I'm trying to figure out who I should avoid."

Bartido looked crestfallen for a moment, which set Hiram off into gales of laughter. Bartido threw him a glare before returning his attention to Gertrude. "That was kind of harsh."

Gertrude shrugged. "If he's anything like you, then it's clear I need to be as far away from him as possible."

"You accepted my card game challenge," Bartido reminded her.

"Before I knew it was just an excuse to flirt," Gertrude countered. "Besides, there's nothing to do here while we wait for the roads to open up again." She looked at Hiram. "Any news?"

Hiram shook his head. "Not really."

Bartido sighed. "Yet another day late. Mother is going to have a fit. Again."

Hiram smiled. "You say that like it's new."

"Hiram!" Hiram looked up to see Opalneria leaning over the railing. "I need to... Ballentyne?"

Bartido looked up at her squinting. "I thought you were with Opalne-" His eyes widened and his head whipped around to look at Hiram. "-ria. That's her, isn't it?"

Hiram chuckled. He loved when Opalneria elicited reactions like that. "Something happen with a specimen?"

Opalneria shook her head to clear it. "Yes. If you could come help?"

Hiram rose. "Sorry to dash so quickly, but duty calls."

Bartido nodded to him, though he still looked a little confused. "Later."

Gertrude inclined her head as well, and then Hiram went upstairs to see what Opalneria had discovered.

* * *

It took most of the rest of the afternoon, but Hiram finally convinced Opalneria to come out of the room in order to take Amy and Astoria up on their offer for some tea. Hiram led her out of the inn without too much fuss. The fuss, though, was clearly happening in front of the shop where they had been headed.

The Magistrate was visible outside the shop, talking to one of his subordinates, though Hiram's eyes were drawn to the destruction wrought. "What happened here?" Opalneria asked breathlessly. Hiram suddenly noticed that Amy was standing off to the other side of the street, holding Cavan close to her and staring at the ruined shop. Hiram headed over to her, and Opalneria hurriedly followed after a moment.

"Oh, it's you," Amy said quietly, w hen Hiram came up.

"What happened?" Hiram asked.

"The… the Beast," Amy said. "Nothing else could have done… that…" she indicated the shop with a flick of the wrist. "Or caused Astoria to do that much damage to her own place."

Hiram blinked. "So she's capable of magic, then."

Amy looked at him blankly. "She owns a Glamour shop; hadn't you figured that out?"

Hiram shrugged. "You could have been the primary maker of the goods, for all I knew." He tilted his head. "Is there anything you need? I originally c ame out here intending on taking you up on your offer of tea, but I have a feeling that's not what you would like to do at the moment."

Amy sighed. "There are many things I'd like to do at this moment that I can't, due to circumstances."

"Amy! There you are."

All four of them turned to see a middle-aged man stride up to join them. "I don't want you wandering about what with all that's going on."

Amy nodded to the man before turning back to Hiram and Opalneria. "In that case, I do have a request. Could you watch Cavan for a bit? Mr. Medoc will be by to watch him when he's done with… whatever's done when…" she trailed off. "It'd only be a half-hour or something like that."

"I'd be happy to," Hiram said. Opalneria looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but no comment.

Amy smiled wanly at Hiram before kneeling down to Cavan's level. The man clearly looked impatient to go do whatever he wanted Amy to be doing.

"Can you stay with this nice man?" Amy asked him. She looked up at Hiram. "What do you want to be called?"

"Hiram's fine."

Amy turned back to Cavan. "Mr. Hiram will be watching you until Mr. Medoc gets done with h is investigating. Okay?"

Cavan nodded, his expression still blank.

Amy rose and Hiram looked up to see that Opalneria and the man were staring at each other. "Sorry," Opalneria said. "But I believe we have not been introduced."

"And that's the way it will stay. I am a very busy man." Hiram raised his eyebrows at the brusque dismissal. "Come, Amy." He started walking away.

Amy sighed. "He never changes." She turned to Hiram and Opalneria and bowed. "Thank you very much for your help." After she rose, she said quickly and under her breath. "He's Pabst Ribbon. Stay away from him." And then she was run ning after him to catch up.

Hiram and Opalneria looked at each other. "Well, I don't think that's what you were intending when you said that you wanted to have tea with a couple ladies of the town, hmm?"

"You make it sound so… dirty," Hiram said, unable to come up with a better word on short notice. He looked down at Cavan. "Are you alright there, Cavan?"

Cavan was staring up at Hiram in the same creepy way he always was. "Death is coming soon," he said.

"Cheery one, isn't he," Opalneria deadpanned. "Is he always like that?"

"So far as I know," Hiram said. "All the more reason why Amy would want him well-watched."

"Death is around you now," Cavan said.

"Yes; after all, he could be saying these things to people he doesn't know very well," Opalneria said.

Hiram gave her a look. "If he's not quite all there, then it's best if he doesn't run into this Beast that Amy keeps harping about."

Opalneria huffed. "Oh very well."

"Is that good little Cavan?" the Magistrate's voice came, and the man followed shortly after as Hiram looked toward the shop. "Where did Amy go, leaving you with these nice people?"

"She went off with a Mr. Pabst," Hiram said. "You'll be looking after Cavan?"

"Yes," the Magistrate said. "I try to keep him out of trouble ever since his parents died. I can't always be looking after him, due to my duties, so Miss Waldorf and Miss Foster have been picking up the slack for me out of the kindness of their own hearts."

"Is there someone else who might be able to…?" Opalneria asked.

"Yes, many in the town are willing to look after him, but I try to keep as much stability in his life as I can." The Magistrate shook his head. "It's not always possible, though."

"Good luck with your work, Magistrate," Hiram said, and the Magistrate thanked him before maneuvering Cavan toward his office.

"I didn't say anything to him," Opalneria pointed out.

"I'm proud of you," Hiram said.


	8. Bystander Day 4

**Bystander Day 4**

Hiram woke with a distinct sense of foreboding. He had slept in, in a comparative sense; Opalneria woke with him. Once they both had prepared for the day, they went downstairs to determine whether they were leaving that day.

They found the proprietress sitting downstairs at one of the empty tables with her head in her hands. Opalneria and Hiram exchanged a glance, then Opalneria approached the woman while Hiram stayed back looking around the main room of the inn. Even though it looked just the same as any other morning, something was wrong today. And even the inn seemed to know about it. Opalneria came back over to him about a minute of looking around the room later. "Her husband is among the dead," Opalneria said quietly.

Hiram looked at Opalneria's serious expression and found that he was unsurprised by the news. "And the Magistrate hasn't opened the roads?"

Opalneria shook her head. "No."

Hiram closed his eyes. "I don't know whether it would be for the best to confine whatever this is to this town, or let more of this town survive."

"You answered your own question, of course. Not that you have to like it," Opalneria replied. Her eyes had started to scan the room. "I do recommend that we escape, however. No lives may be replaceable, but yours more than most in this kingdom. And the last thing that Gammel wants is to have to tell your mother that you died while ostensibly under his care."

Hiram shook his head. "We're probably among the most magically talented people here. If there's anything we can do to protect the people here, it is my duty to do it."

Opalneria narrowed her eyes. "You won't do any good committing suicide for some ideal here. Be realistic; a former member of the Society is dead you told me. Do you think she was weak as a kitten to a magical attack, if that's what it was?"

Hiram shook his head. "They could have been surprised."

"Then we must not be," Opalneria said. "You're being too stubborn about this. It would be a greater blow to the Kingdom if it had to mourn a Prince among those who died here when news gets out about all of this."

"What if the Kingdom found that a Prince had evacuated himself from the town but hadn't done anything to help the town as it imploded on itself?"

"Barely anyone here knows who you really are," Opalneria said, still flat, still sharp and still serious. "Just the Magistrate, right? Or have you been telling everyone you've met?"

"The Magistrate and Bartido. But Bartido already knew."

"Right; him." Opalneria lifted a hand to her lips as she thought for a moment. "As suspicious and strange as he is, there's no way that he's the one behind all of this either. It would be a diplomatic incident to charge him with anything anyway. Why is he being held here?"

"His servants; not all of them are Immune like he is."

"Right... ugh. This of course has to happen with lots of important people around."

"Are you implying that there's a good time for this to happen?" Hiram asked with a hint of an edge in his voice.

"No, and don't put words in my mouth," Opalneria snapped. "Worse events than this can be thought of, but they aren't many, and most of them involve wars. And when I only have some control over one aspect of a tragedy, aren't I going to take advantage?"

Hiram's mood softened a bit at that. "Of course, but this isn't your choice. Or your duty. It's mine."

Opalneria folded her arms. "I still say you're being a stubborn idiot about this."

"I have to agree with your young companion," the Magistrate said, coming into the inn, flanked by a few of his guards. "It would be best if you were gone in the next hour."

"I will not abandon my people in their hour of need," Hiram replied tersely. He didn't want to go over this yet again.

"What your people need in this hour is not you or your presence," the Magistrate said. "What they need is this culprit caught, and this town made safe."

"Which you've been doing quite the job at, Magistrate," Opalneria said with some venom.

The Magistrate inclined his head to acknowledge the point. "Unfortunately, the situation we have here is what we have to deal with, not the ideal." He looked at Hiram. "I must insist on this; we have reason to believe that you are going to be targeted by someone in this town."

"Why haven't you arrested them yet?" Opalneria asked.

"He evaded our capture," the Magistrate said. "You need to be on the road as soon as possible, and keep your eyes open. While I might not be able to protect you here, you may be able to protect yourself given the amount of warning the empty road will give you."

Opalneria turned to Hiram. "See? We need to get you _out_."

Hiram frowned. This went against his gut feeling, but if what the Magistrate was saying was true... "How do you know that someone may be after me?"

"Got a report from a towns-person," the Magistrate said. "Anonymously, but I believe it genuine. The tipper knew who you were."

Both Hiram and Opalneria's eyes widened. "Oh," Hiram said. "Oh..."

"I'll start our preparations and tell the driver," Opalneria said. She left without waiting for a response from Hiram.

The Magistrate gave Hiram a sympathetic look. "If I manage to come out of this alive, I will certainly not disparage you for leaving now."

Hiram looked up. "You don't expect to live through this at all, do you?"

The Magistrate just gave him a soft smile. It made Hiram shudder. "You'll be able to get through the gate as long as you and your partner over there show yourself, and let my guards search the carriage."

And with that, the Magistrate left with his guards, the door of the inn swinging behind him. Hiram was frozen to the spot. Things had clearly gone terribly downhill the previous night. What had happened?

Before he could get too far on that train of thought, the door to the inn swung open to reveal Gertrude Silvaner, who looked terrible, but alive, which given what had apparently happened the night before, made Hiram feel just a hint better. She spotted him quickly and walked straight up to him, making him take an involuntary step back.

"The Beast... is a _boy_," she said. Then she laughed, not sounding entirely sane. "A mere _boy_." She then started to walk off.

Hiram recovered quickly. "Wait!" She turned to look at him, and he noticed that she looked quite dazed. "What do you mean?"

She just laughed for a moment. "It doesn't matter. It's no use. We're all going to die, anyway." She mumbled for a bit, then shook her head. "No. Hiram, right?" Hiram didn't say anything, so she went on. "Get out of here while you still can." Then she turned and walked off to one of the rooms.

Hiram sighed. Opalneria and the Magistrate were probably right; it was time to go.

* * *

The packing and getting the horses ready went smoothly, if not as quickly as Opalneria clearly would have liked. Thankfully, she did not complain about the delay, merely helping so that it went faster. Hiram, once he had recovered enough to join them, helped as well. The driver snapped the horses' reigns short of an hour after the packing had commenced, which Hiram thought was rather speedy.

The entourage made it to the checkpoint in short order, with Hiram and Opalneria riding up with the driver so that they could be seen.

"Ah... who are you?" the guard in front challenged.

"Hiram, with my partner and driver. The Magistrate told us that we were free to exit the town."

After a tense moment, the guard lowered his weapon. "Alright. He told us that you would be coming." He waved to his compatriots. "Check the back; just make sure that no one's stowing away; don't touch anything if you don't have to."

Hiram's eyebrows rose at the order. What exactly had the Magistrate told them to expect, anyway? Opalneria didn't waste time, jumping off of the carriage with grace and walking swiftly to the back to make sure none of the guards did something stupid to the specimens. Particularly the one that they had accidentally activated the day before...

But it turned out that no caution was necessary. There was no one in the back, and the guards checked thoroughly without endangering themselves. The lead guard waved them on through, and then they were on the other side of the barrier. Opalneria now rode in the back with the cargo, while Hiram kept his eyes peeled in the front. After all of that, it would not do to be caught unaware. Hiram was surprised that shortly into the trip, Opalneria stuck her head out from behind him to whisper in his ear. "There is a problem back at the checkpoint. Keep the driver moving, and be ready to summon." Then her head was gone.

Hiram felt very tense as he continued to search the horizon for anything out of the ordinary, and jumped at every odd sound from behind him, even when it was just the bumping of the carriage on the road. But nothing compared to the shock of fear he felt when he heard Opalneria shout.

"Chimera!"

That was bad. Hiram turned to the driver. "Keep going. Shout if you need us." Then he jumped into the carriage and stumbled to the back as quickly as he could. Opalneria had already drawn a rune in one of the spaces they had left open in the back of the carriage, and Hiram began drawing in the other space.

Opalneria's Phantoms burst forth from her rune the instant it was possible, flowing out through the flapping canvas to meet the abomination that was behind them. Through the opening, Hiram could see that even though the Chimera had to swim through Phantoms to do it, it continued to gain on the carriage. He also spotted a pair more behind it. He cursed quietly before continuing to draw a Chaos Nest. Upon finishing, he poured mana to it as fast as he could. Looking out to the following Chimera, and making sure he still had time to complete his plan.

Opalneria was breathing heavily with the effort, but her Phantoms continued to pour out. Finally, long after Hiram actually wanted it, Hiram had his first Grimalkin. The command was issued without a thought, and the Grimalkin hopped out of the carriage and cast Sleep until it was out of magic, knocking out two of the Chimera. The third nearly killed it before Hiram was able to dismiss him. Thankfully Hiram's second Grimalkin had arrived and even though the last Chimera dodged around the swarm of Phantoms that enveloped the others, it also succumbed to sleep from a Grimalkin's staff. Hiram let out a sigh of relief, and Opalneria sat down heavily.

"I-"

"You were right; there's no need to rub it in," Hiram cut her off.

"I'm glad you finally listened to me," Opalneria said mildly, making Hiram flush with shame.

Then both of them whipped around when they heard the driver scream, and then a sound that couldn't be good, but sounded like squish. The carriage then came to an instant stop, throwing Hiram and Opalneria toward the front. When Hiram looked up he found himself looking at a devil... a devil that looked somewhat like Bartido's friend.

The devil grinned, showing white spikes as teeth. "Mmm, and for a moment he thought you two would get away." He laughed. Like his voice, it was not pleasant. "We'll thank that Pabst for the Chimera's shortly, of course. Because of that, two more for Hell this morning. And plenty more waiting back in town. Where they're all just sitting tight, waiting for me to kill them all."

Phantoms flew through the pair of humans and attacked the devil, but he cleared them out of his way with diffident swipes of his claw-like hands. "Pathetic. And to think you two were _there_ when Grimlet kicked the bucket, as little as either of you had to do with it in the end." He laughed when a sleep spell hit him from a Grimalkin. "Stop it," he said, stepping on Hiram's back to get to where the Grimalkin was to kill it. "I'm ticklish there." Hiram screamed, and Opalneria shouted as she pumped more mana into her rune.

"Just how much do you have, anyway?" the devil asked, but it didn't wait for an answer. It reached down and separated Hiram's legs from his body, covering most of the floor with his blood. He screamed again. "A broken back and no legs. What will you do with yourself?" He reached back and killed a few more Phantoms that were slashing their swords at him before he swiped down at Opalneria. She cried out in pain as his talons raked across her body, throwing her to the floor alongside Hiram. "Any last words?"

Opalneria stared up at him with hatred, while Hiram tried to stop focusing on the pain so much so that he could feel his hand. It found its target just in time. Opalneria squeezed just before neither felt anything more from the sharp claws above them. Hiram saw blue and green... but wasn't the floor of the carriage brown and red? Then he was floating, feeling only Opalneria's hand. Then there was nothing.

_It doesn't matter what I do; It remains the same._

_It doesn't matter what I say; They reply identically._

_It doesn't matter where I go; Nothing will change._

_Nothing I do may work at all. I fly forward into the known evil..._

_Tomorrow's sunrise... is it my last?_

Tomorrow... **Prisoner**


	9. Prisoner The Night Before

**Prisoner The Night Before**

The last place that Amy Foster wanted to be was in the lab. So, naturally, that's where she found herself as the evening waned. The only window high on the ceiling spilled orange light into the room in a counterpoint to the candelabras high above their heads. But it wasn't the light that made her fidget like she was a schoolgirl again. Nor was it the various lab equipment that littered the many tables in the room. She didn't mind Alchemy, really. It wasn't her preferred school of magic, but it was sensible and orderly. She couldn't really fault it that.

No, the reason she didn't want to be there was standing at the simple wooden table at the front of the room with his fingers stroking his chin. "Still not stable. I knew creating another one wouldn't be easy, but can I really only have managed to create two of the components through all of this experimentation?"

As her Master was not talking to her, Amy paid his statement as little mind as she dared.

"No luck then with that method, as originally thought," her Master said. "Amy."

Amy rose, trying not to feel quite so stiff. "Yes, sir."

"I want you to use your Glamour to infuse this gold with Fae magic," he said. "And be quick about it."

There was nothing to it; she had to follow his orders, or there would be consequences. As she didn't particularly want to think about such consequences much less have them happen, she focused as much as she could on drawing a Fairy Ring in a small area that was still clear on the wide open floor of the laboratory. She picked the spot as far away from the other Runes on the floor as possible.

Once it was there, she infused it with mana to power it up. Once it hit a particular point of infusion, she initiated a summon.

"I'm here!" the Fairy said, appearing out of the green lines of the Rune. "Yes?"

"Infuse the gold with Fairy Dust, please," Amy commanded quietly.

"Okay, fine," the fairy replied as she started to comply. As the fairy did as she was bid, Amy tried to fight off a shiver. What was she doing?!

"That should be plenty," Master Ribbon said.

"That will do, Fairy. Thank you," Amy said.

"So I'm all done?" The Fairy asked in the distinctive high-pitched voice of one of the Fae.

"Yes. Thank you." Amy waved her hand as she dismissed the Fairy from the Human Realm.

Master Ribbon took the now infused gold and put it in one of his instruments and set it up. He was immersed in the intricacies of the strange device until suddenly he glanced back at Amy. "That's enough, Amy. You may go. I will see you in the morning." Amy didn't need any more permission; she left as quickly as her legs could move her.

She breathed a sigh of relief once she felt her mana investment in the Fairy Ring rune left her, and she watched the last few rays of the setting sun disappear.

She felt tainted.

She had used Glamour to help someone... help him, no less!... to do something that might help the people who had gotten into this mess! The one thing that she had promised herself that she wouldn't do, she had done. She needed to wash herself. Thankfully there was a stream not far out of town where she could cleanse herself of this taint.

The lab was in a building on the outskirts of town, giving her easy access to the small wooded area that lay adjacent to the main southern road. As soon as Amy had escaped the confines of the road and houses and civilization, she felt a little better. She stepped quickly and efficiently through the woods on a path that she had taken many times before. She barely had to pay any attention to where she was going. The stream came into sight before she had to do anything about a lantern.

In the last bit of visible twilight, the lantern could be seen next to the tree that she had left it against. Next to it was a brush and some soap. She stripped and laid her clothing in its normal spot on the bank and sank into the cold water. She took the brush and began to scrub.

She didn't know how long it would take for her to feel clean again, but she did think that it would be worth it no matter what. Though...

Something in the woods felt wrong this night.

Having washed in the dark many times before, Amy knew where everything was in relation to her as the darkness enveloped her. It was best if she didn't turn on the light until she was dressed once again. However... something was different tonight. A feeling that there was Sorcery among the natural Glamour, upending the normal balance of the forest. It must be the Beast.

But.. the Beast hadn't been around for over a week! Wasn't it gone? But no... this was the same sinking feeling that she had when the Beast was anywhere nearby. When something was in the woods that should not have been. And there was really only one thing that could be in the woods that would give some sort of alarm to Amy. And that was the Beast.

Maybe tonight it wouldn't kill anyone.

It was a bit of a vain hope, but... there had been times in the past few months, even during the height of the Beast's terror, that it hadn't caused a casualty even when Amy knew that it had been running around. Maybe it was when it couldn't find a victim. But she hadn't been out washing when she'd felt its presence before. Maybe she was the only possible victim. Well, she wouldn't be an easy victim. Not when she could use her Glamour for protecting something. That wouldn't cause a single shiver.

The feeling slowly faded. She had apparently not been noticed by the Beast as it went through the woods to wherever it was going. She was left alone with her thoughts and the darkness, as she had been originally. So she continued to wash off the taint of helping the one man who had ruined her life. The man who served a dead man. A dead man that she had been forced to serve ever since. The taint of the Archmage.

Though now she wondered idly if Master Ribbon had anything to do with the Beast.


	10. Prisoner Day 1

**Prisoner Day 1**

"I'm sorry I'm late," Amy said, walking into Astoria's shop.

"No problem," Astoria said from behind the counter, smiling at her. "There was nothing I needed you for. Another late night helping Mr. Ribbon?"

"It was a very interesting experiment," Amy said with a weary smile. A little part of her died inside when she had to lie to Astoria, so she went for evasive when she could. "Do we have Cavan today?"

"No," Astoria said. "Magistrate Medoc didn't think that his duties would distract him too much today. So we have the day to ourselves."

"Well, that will make it easier to check on how Sammy's garden is doing," Amy said, walking over to one of the displays.

"Oh, is it still in bad straits after that storm?" Astoria asked.

"Yeah, and it's going to rain again this afternoon, if the sky isn't lying."

"Yes, it will," Astoria agreed. "It won't be nearly as bad as the one that wrecked her garden, though."

"We can hope," Amy said. Sammy could certainly use a break.

"Hope indeed. She has been a little... crazy since the storm." Astoria gave Amy a significant look. "If you can get her a little calmed about the whole situation, that would be great. Perhaps reminding her that the strange issues have died down lately."

Amy wasn't quite so sure of that, but it might work. "I'll try it, Astoria."

It was at that point that the first customer of the day came in, and both the young lady and the old one turned to bow to newcomer and serve them.

The morning went pretty well for Astoria's shop. A few more customers than usual came through, and Astoria made more money than she sometimes made in a full day. Not that she needed it. After she had been in the Royal Magical Society for many many years, she was now effectively retired.

She had this shop because she thought people would like it, and it allowed her to fill her days. Or so she told Amy, anyway.

"Been busy today?" Sammy asked as she came in.

"Probably not as busy as you," Amy said, smiling at the younger girl. Sammy ran over to give Amy a quick hug. "How is the recovery going?"

"Better than expected, worse than hoped," Sammy replied. "Thanks for your advice, Astoria. I was able to save some of the flowers with that rune you recommended."

"Happy to help," Astoria said with a soft smile. "I'm sorry to hear it's not going as well as you'd hoped."

"Well, I'm going to be losing some progress when it rains this afternoon. At least, that's if I did the Glamour weather-prediction correctly this morning."

"That's what we thought," Amy said. "We both got rain as well."

Sammy sighed. "I guess it was too much to hope for that I had done it wrong when I got that result."

"Would you like some help after lunch, Sammy?" Amy asked.

"I'd love some," Sammy said. She looked to Astoria. "Have you been too busy to let Amy go for an hour or two?"

Astoria pretended to think about it for a moment. "I guess I could give her up for about that long if you think you could use her, my dear." She looked out the window. "It's really lunchtime. Amazing how time flies when you're having fun."

"I'm glad that you have fun when you work," Amy said as Astoria walked to the back to get lunch started.

"Of course. Why else would I be here?" Astoria said as she went out of sight.

The instant she was gone, Sammy turned a conspiratorial smile on Amy. "So? How did it go?"

Amy feigned that she didn't know precisely what Sammy was talking about. "How did what go?"

Sammy hit her arm. "The thing with Alexander! Weren't you going on a walk with him before you did that thing with Ribbon? How did it go?"

Amy sighed. "He didn't get the hint."

"No!" Sammy's eyes got wide. "So... now what?"

Amy shrugged. "Maybe I ask him to another walk? It's not like it wasn't fun to talk to him. Or be with him for a while."

"How did he not take the hint?" Sammy said, disgusted. "Didn't you basically ask him to kiss you?"

"Well... sort of..."

"I mean, that's the sort of thing that I'd love to do with someone that I liked," Sammy said, plowing through Amy's halting speech. "And if someone asked me to go on a walk like that, I'd probably kiss them at the end, or say no to the walk in the first place."

Amy tried not to fidget as Sammy continued to think aloud. It had been nice to go on a walk with him, but Sammy did have a point in that he didn't react in the way that they had thought... or she had hoped. She heard Astoria coming back out from the back room, however, and she motioned desperately for Sammy to stop. Sammy, noticing the same thing, wisely stopped her tirade and smiled up at her friend. Amy tried to keep the volume down on her sigh of relief.

They managed to get through lunch without straying too close to the topic that Amy didn't want to discuss in front of Astoria, though the knowing looks she was getting from her Glamour mentor did not bode well. Once finished, Amy and Sammy rose to go to Sammy's garden. "Are you due at Mr. Ribbon's this evening?"

Amy stopped and let out a breath. "I don't know; he didn't tell me he needed me this morning." He could call for her at any time, though, and she would have to come.

"Alright. Hopefully we girls have you all day instead," Astoria said, sipping her tea. "If you can't come back, swing by or have Sammy swing by to tell me."

"Okay, Astoria. Thank you." Then the door to the shop was closed behind her.

"What kind of experiments does Ribbon have you doing these days?" Sammy asked as the two of them walked the route from the shop to Sammy's garden.

"Oh, you know. Same old, same old." The last person she would ever tell about Master Ribbon's true experiments was Sammy... though that was for very different reasons than she wasn't telling Astoria or anyone else about them. Or her predicament.

"If you find Alchemy boring, you should stop your apprenticeship," Sammy said.

Crap. "Ah, well, you know how parents can be. Mother would be highly disappointed in me if I quit now."

"But you have two apprenticeships," Sammy said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Most people with only one are overworked. If you work yourself to death, I'm not going to forgive you."

"I'll keep that in mind," Amy told her with a sad sort of smile. If I'm lucky, it'll only kill me. "So what would be the best thing for us to work on today?"

"Weeding and tidying the yellows on the north side," Sammy said. "It'd be best if I had the ability to sell stuff that goes with most of what people want now, anyway."

"How is business? Still turning enough of a profit?"

Sammy sighed. "It's alright. I don't think it'd be much better if I wasn't having this trouble with the storms, though. There aren't enough people interested in buying flowers that come through this town, I think."

"I see," Amy said. It was probably true. The traffic through the town still kept up a decent pace, but most of the people who were traveling through were not interested in buying anything that wasn't useful on their trip like food or healing minor bumps and scrapes or similar. Simple showy flowers were not on their minds at all. She was now on her knees, pulling up the weeds that had sprouted - or in some cases, blown from outside the garden into it in the past few days.

"You're here again?" Sammy said, ostensibly to someone outside of the garden's confines.

Amy glanced up to see that there was a young woman, about her own age — mid-twenties — dressed in muted colors and wearing small spectacles on her large nose. "I told you I like gardening. I'd love to help."

Amy looked over to see that Sammy was seriously considering this offer, but did not seem to come to a decision very quickly. Looking back at the newcomer, Amy found that this young woman was now smiling genially at her. "Since she seems occupied by my offer, I thought I might introduce myself. Gertrude Silvaner; pleased to make your acquaintance...?"

"Amy. Amy Foster," Amy replied. "You just like gardening?"

"Well, Glamour wasn't my best school of magic when I learned, but I'd like to think that I did pretty well with it," Gertrude said, now leaning on the fence that surrounded Sammy's garden. "Gardens and infusion of plants... that was one of the more peaceful applications of magic. It was... nice. Relaxing. I haven't really had the opportunity lately. So I thought I'd ask." She leaned in conspiratorially. "What did you do to get her to let you help?"

"We're friends," Amy said succinctly. "What brings you to Sallah? Moving on soon?" Like every other traveler ever.

Gertrude seemed unperturbed by Amy's quick change of subject. "I'm taking it slow this time. Part that I don't want to move on to my next destination, and part wanting to actually see what there is to see of my Kingdom."

Sammy came out of her thoughts in time to snort. "Your Kingdom?"

"Well it's yours too," Gertrude said in mock annoyance, though the facade broke quickly. "Until recently, I hadn't the chance to slow down and look around."

"Well I hope you have some good stories then," Sammy said, then her eyes brightened. "Have you heard anything about the Remnant Revnant?!"

Amy rolled her eyes. When she returned to looking at Gertrude, she found that the young woman still looked serene. "No," Gertrude said after a moment. "At least, probably nothing you haven't already heard."

"It's nothing more than a wives' tale," Amy said with a disdainful sniff.

"But wouldn't it be incredibly awesome if she were to come here and kill some evil Archmage supporter?" Sammy asked with awe evident in her voice.

"No," Amy spat with more venom than she intended. She took a breath to calm her frayed nerves. "It wouldn't be awesome. It would be messy. And more people would be hurt than just the evil people. I can't imagine that the Revnant, were this person to exist, hasn't been gravely injured either."

"But wouldn't that make her more heroic?" Sammy pointed out.

Amy looked at Sammy with equal parts desperation and sadness, with a dash of trying to remain calm. "You don't understand what happens when evil people fight against good people, do you?"

"You must have some personal experience on the matter," Gertrude said. Amy opened her mouth to retort, but it died on her lips when Gertrude held up her hands. "It's too gorgeous a day to be spending our time thinking about such things. Now, can I help, Miss Siliam?"

Sammy, unused to being addressed in such a way, stuttered a bit and even looked over to Amy for help, who was still trying to get her breathing under control, before she finally relented. "Alright, you can help. Could you weed the west box?" She pointed to the section of the garden that she meant, since this newcomer might not have the same ease of determining the cardinal directions from the way the buildings in town were laid out as Amy and Sammy.

"Sure can," the newcomer said. She rolled up her sleeves hopped over the fence with agility that seemed to be against the logic of her clothing and got herself down into the dirt.

"Do you really want to get that dress dirty?" Amy asked her when she couldn't handle the curiosity anymore.

"Worth it," was the response.

Amy thought that she would certainly not get down on her hands and knees in such a dress, but maybe this woman came from money and clothes were the last thing on her mind.

But, as the young lady actually worked and Sammy didn't seem to mind her presence, Amy put her strangeness out of her head as best she could, and continued to work on her own section for Sammy's sake.

"Oh, is it that late already?" Gertrude said suddenly, looking out to the west. When Amy looked herself, she found that the sun was indeed well on its way down the horizon and the colors were becoming more and more red and orange. A young man and young woman were walking along with road with significant packs on. Nothing else was really going on on the main pathway, which probably was not helping Sammy with her selling.

Amy stood up and clapped the dirt off of her hands. "I'm gonna go help Astoria close up, Sammy."

Sammy nodded at her. "Alright. Then you should go see that boy, if you don't have to do anything else tonight."

Amy very nearly hissed at her - She said that in front of an outsider no less! - but she thought better of it when she saw that Gertrude was not really paying all that much attention to the conversation on the other side of the garden. Amy did give in to a sigh, though. "Maybe. See you tomorrow."

"Bye!"

Now Gertrude looked up. "It was nice to meet you, Miss Foster."

"You too, Miss Silvaner."

It didn't take long to get back to the shop, where as expected, Astoria had just started on cleaning up for closing. "You were longer than I expected," Astoria told Amy as she walked in.

"Not by that much," Amy said, sliding in to one of her own cleanup duties at the shop. "Besides, you need the most help at closing, and I'm here for that."

"I'm not going to dispute that part, certainly," the older woman said with a sigh. "I do wish that I didn't lose you to Mr. Ribbon or Sammy as often as I do. I'm getting too old to run this shop by myself."

"Oh you're doing fine; no whining," Amy said with an undercurrent of mirth. "You're still much faster than me at all of this; it can't be too bad yet."

As if proof, Amy suddenly found that Astoria was next to her and giving her a supreme glare. Which Amy supremely ignored.

The cleanup and tidying of the shop after a full day of customers didn't take very long, leaving about half the sun above the western horizon when Amy left the shop and headed down the street to her room adjacent to the lab.

But she had another place she wanted to go first.

There was only one church necessary to serve a town the size of Sallah, and even then some of the surrounding farms were close enough that it was the most convenient place for them to come to service as well. But there was no service this evening. Amy walked into the small nave and shut the door behind her with a small click before picking her favorite pew and sitting and closing her eyes.

While she was not very good with Sorcery or Necromancy, the two schools of magic that the religious types tended to actually care about, she did use each of them from time to time. If only because Ribbon was insistent on her being fairly versatile in her combat prowess. Not being able to even use a school of magic was asking for someone who could only be reliably defeated with that school to attack you. Or so he told her. Amy was really only worried about him attacking her, and he was an Alchemist. So when he told her she needed to learn Sorcery...

Maybe she'd live, if he decided she'd betrayed him. Maybe.

She felt guilty that she had ever had to deal with devils, but she figured as long as she kept within the Grimoire's precepts, and didn't try to experiment with them, maybe God would someday forgive her for that, if not some of the other things that she had done to help Pabst Ribbon in his goals and conquests.

But it was not God's forgiveness she sought.

"Again?" a measured and expected voice came from behind her. "Are you sure you don't need confessional?"

Amy smiled gently as she turned her head to regard the speaker. "Weren't you the one who told me that confession isn't something the church does much anymore?"

"We still could, if we wanted to. The Rite still exists," Deacon Alexander Brandy replied, sliding into the pew next to her. "But seriously. Is something wrong? I keep finding you having a moment in the pews."

"I'm alright." For now. "Today I just wanted to see you."

He acquired a wry grin. "As much as that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside—" Amy's heart jumped in her chest. "—I do have things to do, Amy."

Amy looked down at the hymnals in the shelf built into the pew in front of her. "You don't want to see me?"

"Not what I said," Alexander sing-songed. "Our Priests are both out on visitations tonight so I have to be on call for whatever happens, in addition to making sure that everything's in proper order for Morning Prayer tomorrow. But that's all beside the point. What's wrong?"

Amy sighed. "I'm sorry... I can't talk about it." First time she hadn't lied about it all day.

"Hence you come here to think about it?" Alexander asked.

"Hence I come here to see you." Was that too obvious? Sammy probably wouldn't think so.

"How about we go on a walk tomorrow?" he said. "I can see you after Morning Prayer pretty much any time before lunch. We can talk about it then."

"Or something else?" Amy said in a small voice.

"Anything you like," he said with a smile. "And you can be here and pray with God as long as you want; I'll be in the office." He rose and walked back to the door through which he had come, which he left open. She could hear the scratching of his pen.

Amy took a shuddering breath and tried not to cry as she slumped down into the pew. Maybe God would help her that much?


	11. Prisoner Day 2

**Prisoner Day 2**

Amy took off her cloak as she walked in out of the rain to Astoria's shop. "Good morning," she said, hanging the cloak on a peg by the door.

"Good morning, Amy," Astoria said.

"Death is all around us."

Amy looked down to see Cavan looking up at her. She looked to Astoria.

"The Magistrate is investigating the death of the Head of the Town Council," Astoria said, confirming Amy's thought.

Amy stiffened. "A murder?"

"He thinks so, but he couldn't tell me much when he's just coming by to leave Cavan."

Amy shook her head. It would not help her to be overly worried about the Beast. "Right."

"Does Mr. Ribbon want you for anything today?" Astoria asked as Amy and Cavan walked over to the desk where Astoria was.

"Yes. He correctly figured that we wouldn't have much business today," dammit. "and wants me for the afternoon."

"Alright, then you can take care of Sammy," Astoria said, indicating with a wave of her arm the younger girl, who was sitting stock still in a back corner of the shop.

Amy hadn't even noticed she was there. Amy gently disentangled Cavan from her legs before walking over to Sammy. "Sammy? Are you okay?"

She mutely shook her head.

"Take her upstairs," Astoria suggested. "Without much business, I think I can handle Cavan by myself."

"Alright," Amy said. "Up you come, Sammy." She lifted the younger girl to her feet, her worry increasing as she didn't protest at all. She took her upstairs into Astoria's room and sat her down on the pristinely made bed. "You haven't eaten yet, have you?" Another mute shake. Amy went over to the coldbox and got out some fruit for Sammy, who took it and munched on it numbly. Amy waited patiently for her to finish with the most caring expression she could muster.

Finally, after the fruit was long gone, Sammy looked up into Amy's eyes and immediately broke the gaze, tearing up.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked, worry once again rising.

"I nearly died last night," Sammy said quietly. "I saw the Beast."

Amy was rocked back onto her heels. "You went out?"

"My garden," Sammy said. "If I worked to protect it from today's rain, then I wouldn't have to spend nearly as much time recovering. But I heard it coming. And I tried to run, though I tripped."

"What... what made the difference?"

"A Familiar - well, three of them - came to help me. They drove the Beast back away from me. I didn't stick around to see how well they did. I ran here. I took cover in the shop. The Beast didn't find me."

Amy was too shocked to respond. A silence lengthened between them before Sammy, abandoning the level tone and threatening to sob, asked, "Amy?"

Amy pulled the girl into a hug which she gratefully melted into.

It was some time before the two young women emerged from the back rooms of Astoria's shop, but it had been well worth it in Amy's opinion. Sammy was a lot less of a marionette and more of a person again as she followed Amy down the stairs. Astoria smiled at the young lady, who looked down and mumbled something that approximated an apology. Astoria just continued to smile and shook her head.

Amy looked out at the driving rain. "Can't tell time from the sun today."

"No, but that's what my clock is for," Astoria said. "Are you having lunch here or there?"

"Here."

"Then go get it started." Amy glanced at the clock. It was quarter to noon. She suddenly remembered Alexander's offer... and that Ribbon had her for most of the afternoon. She took a breath to steady herself. Maybe she could swing by after lunch and ask him if his evening was free this time.

Sammy helped her with the preparation of lunch, which was a quiet affair even with Cavan present. Amy found that though she loved every person present, and it really should have been relaxing and even encouraging since Sammy seemed to be back to her functional self, if not especially bubbly, she was getting more and more tense by the moment. And there was nothing that she could do about it.

Her plate had been empty in front of her for nearly ten minutes before the gentle reminder came. "You should really get going, Amy." Astoria was looking at her kindly. Amy couldn't hold that gaze, so she nodded at the wall instead as she stood up to gather her stuff.

"Be careful out there," Astoria told Amy as she opened the door to the shop.

"See you tonight?" Sammy asked.

"Come by; we'll have dinner," Amy told her, and then closed the door behind her and tried to sink deeper into her raincloak. She walked more quickly than she intended toward the church... but at least the person that she was going to see at the church was someone she wanted to see.

"Tonight?" Alexander had asked when Amy told him of her own schedule. "I could do dinner or something. I have to do a visitation after that, and you know how I dislike being out after dark if I don't have to be."

"Dinner with me and Sammy, then?"

Alexander grinned. "Sure. I haven't seen the bouncy one in too long. Do people still call her Slammin'?"

Amy winced. "Not to her face."

Alexander laughed. "Okay, then I won't call her that again. See you tonight, Amy."

"Looking forward to it." More than he knew, sadly.

It was the walk from the church to the lab that was difficult. Amy found that she had to force herself to take each step forward. Surely he wasn't going to be any worse than usual, right? Ignore her other than to train something other than Glamour and to have her help with an experiment or two. Hopefully it would be all of the former and none of the latter... but that was too much to hope for. He was obsessed with his experiments.

Soon - too soon - Amy found herself in front of his door. Before she could even take a breath on his threshold, the door opened. "You're late."

"I'm sorry."

"Get in here."

Amy had no choice but to obey.

The door closed behind her, and Ribbon proceeded to pace in front of her as she took off her shoes and cloak and hung it on her normal rung by the door.

"The time has come," Ribbon said suddenly, still pacing.

Amy blinked at him, her face blank.

"Revenge! Silly girl! Have you been listening?!" he shouted, but then seemed to think better of it and took a calming breath. "Revenge will be sweet."

"Revenge?"

"Yes! Yes! Against one of those bastards that was at the Tower when our Master fell!" He was giddy as he related this. "One of them is staying at the inn in town. And because the Magistrate closed the road, they're stuck here! Perfect!" Amy's breath caught in her throat, but he continued on heedless of her discomfort. "So I finally have a task for you that will put all of your training here to use!"

He happily skipped off into the lab, leaving Amy with wide wild eyes. He poked his head back in when he noticed that she had not followed him. "Oh don't worry, I don't think they'll kill you."

Amy slammed her eyes shut and counted to three. When she opened them again, he was still in the doorway looking at her, though his face had lost the giddiness. "Don't make me kill them too." Amy was still frozen, still processing. "You know, I've never had the opportunity to prove that I wasn't bluffing about your parents. And your adorable little brother and sister. It would be a real shame if the farm were to burn to-"

"Stop!" Amy choked out.

"Ah, so you're still in there?" Ribbon said, his smile back but it was clearly vengeful this time. "Then you know I'm serious. We'll fortify you a bit, and then we'll go, I'll tell you who, and you kill him. Very simple."

Breathe. Out. In. "Will that release me from my task?"

He laughed. Laughed! "Oh, no. Of course not. As long as you work with me, everyone's safe. When you're not working with me... they're not safe."

"You said-"

"I said a lot of things, some of them were even true," Pabst cut her off, clearly enjoying the torture that he was inflicting. Amy didn't know that she could hate the man any more than she had two nights before, but it was certainly proven possible now. "And I do think that you'll cooperate, like you always have. I did tell you that you've been very helpful in my experiments, yes?"

Amy sighed. "Yes."

"Of course I did! I always appreciate the help." He beckoned her. "Come on, we must fortify you if you're going to do well even against someone who was a student not so long ago."

Amy leadenly felt her feet move one in front of the other. What was she suddenly signed up for?

She stood stock still as she was basically force-fed three potions, two of which she was well aware were completely untested. The other at least she knew worked like Pabst had wanted it to. She had his Fatigue-Killing potion enough times to know. That was the red one. The blue one was supposed to increase her ability to support summoned familiars and the green one was supposed to increase her ability in her weakest school: Sorcery. This thought unfroze her tongue. "I'm supposed to use Sorcery?"

"You're to make it look like your best school," her Master said as he stood back and watched her, frowning. He didn't elaborate as to why, and Amy bit her lip knowing that she wasn't going to get anything further out of him. And without any more information, she found that she was having to squash harder on her rising terror.

"Now, I think you're ready. I want you to go out to the wood to draw your initial runes and get your initial summons for this. You'll draw more at the site." Then he was leading the way again, this time back out into the rain.

Amy struggled to put on her raincloak quickly - it was always hard to put on a sopping cloak - and tried to catch up to Ribbon. He had set an extremely strong pace, and Amy had to run in order to catch up with him. In the driving rain, there was no way that she would be able to see him if she let him get too far ahead in the woods, and there were several clearings that he could be thinking of.

Thankfully, the one that he had chosen wasn't all that far away from his place, and he stopped and turned around to face her when he was on the opposite side of it. "Draw all three Sorcerous Runes here and generate your mana. You need to have everything in hand such that you could immediately summon quick Demons if necessary."

Though she desperately did not want to, she obeyed. She drew all three of the primary Sorcerous runes and powered them as much as she could, limited by her skill and the supply of mana in the forest.

"There you go," Ribbon said, his smile widening on his fat face. "You're set to go. Don't worry. I'll be watching from afar." He chuckled to himself, then he started on his way out of the forest. "Don't tarry too long. You want to be ready when they go on a walk. He'll be with a young woman, in violet. He'll be in green. Kill them both" Then he was out of sight, though she could still hear his laugh ring among the trees and raindrops.

They'd want to go on a walk in this? Then again, Pabst hadn't told her how he knew about them, only her instructions. He was probably right, as them not actually going on a walk would be far too convenient. For her, anyway. So that wasn't going to happen.

She took a deep breath. Just like practice, right? Only this time the familiars wouldn't hold their attacks if they were about to hit her. The penalty this time wasn't losing, it was death. Another deep breath. Then she forced herself to start walking. Once started, it was a lot easier to keep going.

She took in the sights and sounds of the rain among the branches and trunks. Then the rain among the thatched roofs. Like it was her last time walking through the wood, and then down that street. Like it was the walk to the gallows. It certainly felt like one. She had commanded the four Demons she had summoned to go around the nearest buildings so that they would not be immediately visible. The Imps she had trailing behind her, making a long line. Unless someone got fairly close to her, they wouldn't be seen until it was too late. Or so she thought.

She suddenly felt the twinge of alert. The Demons that were approaching on her right were engaged. Engaged with what, though? Another twinge of alert made her close her eyes, focusing on her familiars. The Demons on her right were engaged with a small cadre of Phantoms supported by... a Grimalkin? The ones on her left were... attacked by an identical force.

She had stopped walking, although she did not remember doing so. The Demons were not having the best time against their sudden adversaries, and she had already lost one of them. Her Imps alone would not be enough, even if she supplemented with a rune during the fight. She looked around, hoping to see Ribbon, hoping against hope that he knew that there was a problem and would tell her to abort, but she could barely see her hand in front of her face, much less anybody that might be lurking between - or on? - the buildings.

Another twinge, this time from the Imps in the back of her pack. She whirled, squinting into the downpour. More Phantoms; she could see their eerie outlines clearly through the rain, though not much else. They were mowing through her Imps (no matter that the Imps were swarming them) like a hot knife through butter. Feeling the last bit of her connection to the Demons fade away, she turned and ran.

When she felt the last Imp fall, she chanced a glance behind her to see if she could make out the ghostly outlines of the Phantoms, but she couldn't make any out. She hoped that was because they were too far away and wouldn't be able to see her either.

She looked around in front of her. She had reached the main intersection, where the fancy inn was, and looked around. Something was going on to the right; on the road toward the capital.

She looked behind her again. She still couldn't see anything. But she'd have to go back there if she wanted to hide in Astoria's shop, and she still didn't know where Ribbon was. And he held all the cards. She had to check out what was going on, much as she didn't want to.

She walked slowly forward onto the road to the capital, considering her options. She could draw another Sorcerous Rune, maybe even summon from it if they didn't know she was there, or she could run. Those were basically her best options. Not much... Maybe she should go and find Astoria? No... no. If she found Ribbon while with her, that would cause a huge host of other problems. It was best, if terrifying, that she just try to figure out what in the world was going on.

She had gotten close enough to see that there were definitely Phantoms among those doing what now she was sure was fighting, but couldn't see much else. Well, Sorcery wouldn't help her against any more of them, certainly. She briefly debated dismissing the Runes that she had left in the forest, but decided against it.

But what she saw as the scene before her became clear brought both her body and her brain to a complete and utter stop.

Pabst Ribbon had only two Golems that stood between him and four Phantoms and a Grimalkin. And both of those were now asleep as the Grimalkin cast Sleep. The Phantoms dutifully hacked through the unresisting constructs toward the rune where Pabst had fallen. The rune was glowing with power, but it looked like it wouldn't manage to produce much before the Phantoms were able to destroy it. Another Golem did come out, but it was promptly put to sleep.

"What?!" Pabst shouted as the new Golem fell and the Phantoms returned to slicing through the magical raised lines of his rune. "What do you want from me?!"

From where Amy was, she could barely hear the female voice as it replied. "I want you gone, Archmage's dog."

"No!" he shouted, his cries becoming more and more desperate. His eyes cast about and alighted on Amy. "Amy! Help me! On your brothers' lives!"

"None of that now," the voice said. Amy could barely make out movement beyond Ribbon. "You're not going to escape, so how would you take any revenge on her family?"

"I have... plans in place! If I don't notify the right people..."

"I've heard this song and dance before," the woman said. "And it can't be any more true now than it was then."

"Amy! Why aren't you helping me?!"

Amy rubbed at her face as if that would un-stick her tongue. Amazingly, it did. "They're all destroyed. Probably by her." There was no need for Amy to indicate who she meant.

"Save me!"

"You're not worth it." The venom from the woman's voice sent chills unrelated to the cold rain down Amy's back.

Ribbon's scream was cut off by the Phantom's sword slicing through his neck, separating his head from his body. Amy vomited on the wet ground. Then her legs unfroze and she ran directly back to Astoria's shop, throwing herself inside and slamming the door behind her.

"Amy!" Sammy cried as she came in. "What happened? You look so pale!" Astoria had come around from where she normally finalized sales and caught Amy as she stumbled.

"Amy, are you alright?" the older woman asked.

Amy leaned into her mentor. "No." She looked up into Astoria's eyes. "I need to go home. Now."

"The afternoon is waning, and it's still pouring out. And the blockades are up. There's no way you'd be safe if you tried to leave now," Astoria told her.

"You don't understand!" Amy said heatedly. "My family is in danger! I have to go protect them-"

"Why?" Sammy asked. "What is after them?"

Amy closed her eyes. "Servants of the Archmage. I failed, and now they will pay the price."

Astoria held her by the shoulders such that Amy had no choice but to look directly into her mentor's eyes. "Tell me everything."

So she did.

When she was done, the rain had lessened outside, but it had become so late that it remained extremely dark outside of the windows. Sammy had sat down heavily halfway through Amy's story, while Astoria never broke her gaze. She had told them everything. Everything that she had promised never to tell. Swore to him on the suffering of her family. But... he was gone. And now they would suffer for it. Through nothing that she had done herself. Just that woman.

"Did you recognize the voice?" Astoria asked when she was done. When Amy looked up at her, she saw that Astoria's hands were gripping the counter hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

Amy tried to replay it in her mind, but it didn't work very well. "It was hard to hear."

"Hmph." Astoria snorted. "We might be able to get some answers if we find her again."

Amy nodded. Then she shook her head. "I need to get home. I hope the blockades will be taken down tomorrow."

"We'll figure something out," Astoria said softly.

"Why don't you go and pray?" Sammy suggested. "We'll see you tomorrow bright and early and rested. We'll come up with something."

It took a moment for Amy to realize why Sammy had suggested that. But once she did. "Yes... I think I will do that."

She practically ran through the drenched streets to the old church. She didn't care that one of the priests was there. He was there. And she collapsed in his arms. And he held her there gently.

One thing did go right that day.


	12. Prisoner Day 3

**Prisoner Day 3**

Amy woke with the dawn. It was only half-way through her morning routine that she remembered the events of the previous day, and rushed through the rest of it and quite nearly flew down the street to Astoria's shop. The door was open, and Sammy was yawning on top of one of the empty counters. She hopped down to greet Amy. "Good morning."

Amy looked at her with a tilted head and narrowed eyes. "You're up early."

"You need me," she replied.

"I must admit to being surprised myself," Astoria said, coming downstairs with two bowls. "I also appreciate it, though. She'll be able to keep up with you."

Amy looked at her askance. "Keep up with me how?"

"When you go on a vacation to visit your parents today," Sammy said. "Well, when we do."

"Are... the blockades...?"

Sammy jumped down from the counter. "After breakfast we're going to go talk to the Magistrate. Maybe all of the taking care of Cavan you've done for him will inspire a favor or two in return."

"But most people are easier to deal with once they've eaten," Astoria said, filling the bowls with breakfast. "So we will all eat first. And we'll try to time it so that he has as well."

While Amy was itchy to get going, she had long learned that Astoria knew what she was talking about when it came to how people were, and how her suggestions were generally wise. So she sat down beside her teenaged friend and kept the two of her closest friends in Sallah company as they ate. And dealt with them coaxing her into eating as well. Amy wouldn't admit it, but she was glad that the two of them cared enough to force her to eat something, and then were successful in doing so.

Once they were finished and cleaned up, the three of them went to the Magistrate's compound on the Capital side of the through-road. When they presented themselves to the guard outside, he just waved them all in. They found the Magistrate was giving orders to nearly all of the guards in the main area. Or had just finished, as they all filed past the three women. The Magistrate smiled as he saw them. "I caught the killer. Hard to believe, isn't it?"

All three of the women expressed their surprise differently. Amy, for her part, had widened eyes and an open mouth, which she decided to use. "So that means the blockades are clear now?"

The Magistrate nodded. "That's what I'm having them all do. Soon enough traffic will resume. But I did want to talk to you two about it." He indicated Sammy and Amy. "She claimed to know you, this Silvaner."

"It was Gertrude?!" Sammy cried. Amy was just as shocked, but merely gaped at the Magistrate.

"So she didn't give any indication that this was what she was here for..." the Magistrate said, almost to himself. But Amy was no longer listening. She was hearing two voices in her head. But not two voices…

"_Well it's yours too. Until recently, I hadn't the chance to slow down and look around." _

_"None of that now. You're not going to escape, so how would you take any revenge on her family?"_

One voice.

"Magistrate," Amy said, cutting off Sammy's next incredulous exclamation with her calm tone. "I need to speak to her."

He turned to her, suddenly frowning. "What? Why?"

"She knows something about my parents and Mr. Ribbon."

"She has many things to say about Mr. Ribbon, none of them good. I wanted to ask you about them, too," the Magistrate told her.

"They're probably true."

His eyes widened. "He's..."

"A servant of the Archmage. I really have to talk to her, Magistrate. My family may be in danger."

"I find that hard to believe, even if he was involved with that sort. He's dead now; there's nothing that he can do to anyone, good or bad."

"He held me captive with the threat. I can't just assume the threat is gone," Amy told him. "I... have to, Magistrate Medoc. Please."

"You do owe her for taking care of Cavan all those times," Sammy pointed out with her arms folded and her sternest glare. Astoria bopped her on the head, ruining the effect.

Medoc turned back toward Amy. "Alright. But only you, only for a moment, and only while I'm with you."

So, the Magistrate lead Amy down to the cells beneath the offices. Hers was apparently the first one on the right. She had been seated on the small cot in the corner, but rose when she saw the two that had come down into the dank. "Miss Foster..." she said, sinking into a gentle curtsy.

"Could he have done something that would leave my family in danger?" Amy asked without preamble.

"Yes," Silvaner said instantly. "Go. Go now. Go prepared. And come back safely."

"What do you know about such things?" the Magistrate asked as he stepped closer to the bars, but Amy was already ascending the stairs.

She went directly to Sammy and Astoria. "I'm leaving now. Are you coming?"

"Was it her?" Sammy asked. "Was she the one who killed Ribbon?"

"Yes," Amy replied. Sammy gasped, but Amy pressed on. "And she confirmed that they might be in danger. I have to go."

"And I'm coming," Sammy said, her eyes determined.

"Be safe, you two," Astoria said. "Amy, if you need any help, you know how to send a message by fairy. Don't hold back on those."

"I won't," Amy told her. "We'll be taking precautions."

"There remains danger," a small voice said, and Amy turned around to find Cavan standing behind her. "More here than your home."

"It's alright, Cavan," Amy said, kneeling down and hugging the boy. "You're in a lot less danger. No more of those strange things with Mr. Ribbon."

"Less safe, not more. One may fall, but one will rise in his place. And one always remains behind."

"That's not ominous at all," Sammy bit out.

"Strange things?" Astoria asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Experiments," Amy said quietly. "I made sure that he couldn't get to Cavan all the time, but... I couldn't be everywhere at once."

"I'm not blaming you," Astoria said kindly, and her voice turned to ice. "Were he alive, I'm not sure he would live another day, the more you tell me." She took a deep breath . "I laid out two packs at my shop. Come back, get them, and maybe the road will be open by the time you get there."

"Oh, they're well on their way. I imagine that they'll be all done in a few minutes," a new voice said, coming in from outside. She had blonde hair and was dressed in purple practically from head to toe. Her hands were folded neatly in front of her.

"Mage Consul! I'm surprised you came yourself," Astoria said.

"I was nearby. Would you like to give your friends a farewell before we talk? Though I did come here rather to talk to the Magistrate..."

Astoria quickly gave a hug to both Amy and Sammy (to the latter's distress), and then Amy and Sammy headed back to the shop to pick up the supplies that Astoria had left for them.

"How long will it take to get there?" Sammy asked as they both put on the packs that Astoria had laid out. Amy momentarily wondered where she had gotten them.

"If we leave now, we would get there before dark," Amy said.

"Did you tell Alex anything about what's going on?" Sammy asked, abruptly changing the subject.

Amy shook her head. "No… I haven't really had the opportunity."

"Does he know you're leaving?"

"No… I didn't talk to him last night."

"You need to keep him in the loop more," Sammy admonished. "You should probably tell him everything."

But Amy didn't want to. Not him... he didn't deserve being thrown into this just as it got hairy. "When we come back, I'll tell him." Hopefully it would be over by then.

By the time the pair of them reached the edge of the barrier, it had been lifted and the guard who was there cleaning up some of the remaining supplies waved them on through. Shortly after being sure they had cleared the barrier, they turned north.

Amy was born on the farmland that was about a day's travel north of Sallah. It was owned by the same liege lord that owned the town, technically, but other than doing the bare minimum required by the Crown, he really didn't pry into local affairs too much. Rumor said he was far more interested in drink and his wife to bother with anything beyond strict requirements. Amy thought there were worse things that a lord could be doing, even if it made it a lot easier for people like Pabst Ribbon to operate without discovery.

She shook her head to get back to focusing on the path ahead of her.

While the main road lead quite a ways further east before turning north and heading to the capital, Amy and Sammy took a smaller path that was not nearly large enough to allow for the carriages that the wealthy or learned would be able to use. Though Amy knew that Astoria counted as both of those things, she for some reason couldn't imagine the old woman taking a carriage rather than walking. Perhaps it was because she had become like a second mother to her, or perhaps it was because she spent all of her time tending to her shop or making sure one of her many charges was doing alright.

Whenever Amy made this trip, she always stopped for lunch in a particular clearing in the surrounding trees that had a pre-dug firepit for use. Not that she always used it to help prepare the meal, but there was plenty of space to sit, and it was difficult to sneak up on the spot since it was so open. The clearing was one of the few times that a traveler along this particular path could tell precisely where the sun was. Most of the other places along the path it was possible to determine approximately what time it was by the amount of light that made it through the canopy over head, but determining the exact location of the sun, particularly when it wasn't directly overhead, became difficult.

Lunch was a quiet affair, like the trip itself. While Sammy did try to start conversations on a variety of subjects, and Amy tried to respond as best she could... Sammy seemed to be able to tell that Amy's heart wasn't in it and had eventually given up. When Amy had finished, Sammy quickly finished off her own fruit and rose. The two of them left the clearing without a word to each other.

Without the sun to tell them how long they'd been on the road, Amy pressed as fast as she thought Sammy could manage. Sammy did well enough keeping up with the pace that Amy set, so she thought she was doing alright.

It turned out that she had been doing more than alright. They managed to reach the opposite side of the small forest path before it got dark. The setting sun painted the clouds in blues and purples in the east and reds and oranges in the west. Amy only vaguely paid any attention, and only because Sammy was staring at the sky when she could. Amy was more focused on remembering the best way across the farmlands to the farm that she had grown up on.

She found, as most find, that her memory was better than she thought it was, and her feet did not lead her astray. She remembered that there was a particular cornfield that she could go through with the permission of the farmhands there. She remembered which of the next three fields were fallow this year and she could just walk diagonally across to make even better time. Sammy stayed on her heels and waved congenially at the farmhands that they passed. Amy vaguely remembered to raise a hand to join in Sammy's greeting most of the time. She was sure that she completely missed passing some people.

Finally though, just as the final reds on the clouds were gone, she was on her parents' farm. She broke into a trot and she heard Sammy speed up behind her. "Amy! What…?"

"Almost there!" Amy called back. And then they had arrived. The farmhouse loomed in front of them. Nothing was lit, and it didn't look like anyone was rustling about. "Something's wrong."

"No one seems to be here," Sammy said. Well, that wasn't good.

"I'm glad you came by," a voice said from behind the girls. Amy whipped around, her wand out and the first stroke made in her Rune before she recognized the man that had surprised her.

"Mr. Blan..."

"Your family is fine. They're in the Lord's mansion tonight as they were witnesses in a crime. They'll be back in a few days."

"They're in danger!" Amy said, louder than she had intended.

"Actually, not anymore," Mr. Blan said. "That's connected with the crime that they were witnesses to. It's a bit of a story, should we go inside? Here or my place is fine with me."

While there was a distinct possibility that the person in front of her wasn't Mr. Blan at all, but someone with an identity-concealing spell on, Amy didn't think so. He had the same mannerisms. He had the same voice. And even if someone was extremely good with face-changing, it was impossible to mimic those other things with magic. She erased the line in the dirt beneath her. "Here's fine. This is where I'm sleeping tonight, anyway."

Vin Blan nodded, and the three of them went into the farmhouse. Amy lit a few candles so that they could see, as the light from outside was continuing to fade to darkness rapidly.

"Now, as you may or may not know," Mr. Blan said, "my whole family work as farmhands. However, with the money my eldest daughter has been sending home we've been able to send her brothers to school. Your family, among others have had to replace them with other, new farmhands."

Amy vaguely remembered the hiring of new farmhands, but didn't know that the Blans were the ones who had pulled out.

"These new farmhands... well, most of them were fine. But there were a pair of farmhands that were not from around here, and no one knew where they were from. We thought they were nice enough, and they worked hard enough in the fields that no one really minded them. But there was something... off-putting about them. Never enough that I thought they were bad people, but something that made me itch a little. And I wasn't just being paranoid or anything; they had something up their sleeves.

"When it actually came to a head, I was on the Noir's farm on the west side of the area, so I didn't hear about it until I got home. But apparently one of the new farmhands had drawn Runes in the wheat fields and was summoning imps."

Sammy gasped. Amy had a hand to her mouth and stared at Mr. Blan with wide eyes.

"He didn't get very far with it, though, as another one of the newer farmhands spotted it and took him down. I don't know how, but apparently some in your family were there for the scuffle, so they went as witnesses to the crime." He let out a breath. "If you say that your family is in danger, then it is likely that the farmhand in question was after your family. And I don't think he'll be going after anyone else anytime soon."

"Why?" Sammy asked breathlessly.

"Well, once they got him to admit he was working for the Archmage's revival, he earned himself the gallows."

Amy slumped back into her chair. She had been too late, but it hadn't mattered. Her parents were alright. Would have been alright anyway…

"When was this?" Sammy asked.

"Oh, a little over a week ago," Mr. Blan said, looking vaguely up in thought. "Something like that anyway. You know how the witness-takers are, though. The first time your father will be able to send a brother with word to you it might be autumn, with all of the work that they're missing right now."

Mr. Blan stood up. "I do need to be getting back, but I'm glad I spotted you on your way over here. Anyway, there's no need to worry. Maybe come back next week for dinner? I'll certainly let them know that you had been by."

He left, giving a farewell to both of them that Sammy returned whole-heartedly and Amy barely noticed, before shutting the door with a soft click behind him.

"Amy," Sammy said after a moment. "I know you're exhausted and relieved, but I need you to help me fix some dinner and then show me where I should sleep."

That roused her. It was good Sammy had come along.


	13. Prisoner Day 4

**Prisoner Day 4**

When Amy awoke the next morning, it took her a moment to realize that she was in her parents' house, in one of her brothers' beds. And Sammy was in the other one, snoozing away. The one window in the room faced east, and Amy could see the clouds being painted by the newborn sunrise.

It didn't take long to wake Sammy, even though she moaned and grumbled and looked like death warmed up. "I'm fine!" she said. "I... need to wash up before I'll be any use, is all." Amy was impressed. So Sammy could do it if she tried.

Amy, naturally, knew where all the supplies were in the house, though she only needed one or two additions to the supplies that Astoria had provided them to make a good breakfast. Astoria's packs were extremely effective and complete. Once Sammy had washed up and eaten, she was back to normal, like she had insisted she would be. "Ready to go?" Sammy asked, pulling her own pack on.

Amy blinked, then nodded. "Give me a minute to put things away first." It wouldn't do to leave the house in any state other than spotless. Her mother would kill her. Once that had been taken care of, she pulled on her own pack, and the two of them left just as the sun started to peak over the eastern hills.

The two young women may have been underway early, but they still didn't beat some of the farmhands. A lot of the same men and women that had been working in the fields the previous day stopped to watch them pass again, though this time both of the traveling young women waved or bowed or otherwise acknowledged them.

Once they had left the farmlands, the two didn't see anyone else on their route.

Amy and Sammy talked about various unimportant things as they walked. Things like the latest scandal regarding someone cheating on their spouse ("I couldn't believe he could ever do anything like that! But it apparently doesn't even stop there!") or Sammy needling Amy about Alex ("Don't you think you should visit him first when we get back?"). It was... relaxing. Being able to recover from the stress over the past couple days with a walk through well-known landscapes.

They reached the great lunch spot quite a bit after the sun had reached its daily zenith, but it was too good of a lunch spot to eat before they got there, so they just had a late lunch. They didn't linger long after finishing their lunches (and the last of their provided food from Astoria). It wasn't that they felt like they had to hurry so much as they wanted to report the good news over dinner with Astoria, and that required arriving by dinner.

The sun hadn't quite started to turn the sky from the traditional pale blue to reds and oranges yet when they left the confines of the trees and started to approach the main road. Or at least, it shouldn't have been. Amy glanced up at where the sun was. It was about halfway down, like she expected, but... there were definitely reds and oranges and a gray and black plume adorning the sky... above Sallah.

Oh, no.

"Amy..." Sammy said, coming to a stop. "Do you see what I see?"

Yes. "We need to get there now."

"No use in hurrying if we're going to be any help," Sammy pointed out reasonably. Though the last thing that Amy wanted to be at that moment was reasonable. "We need to have energy to spare to do anything about… whatever might be happening."

"No use in lollygagging either," Amy said, and she started ahead again at a slightly more brisk pace. Sammy took a moment to catch up to Amy's new pace, but was able to keep up with it once she did.

It took more than an hour to get to the town, and the daylight had begun to fade, as well as the firelight that came from the town. While there were certainly people around, none of them were responsive. Sammy and Amy both checked all of them for breathing or pulse… but found none. Amy recognized most of them and had to swallow her own feelings as she searched among the buildings - a lot of which were in far better shape than she had been expecting - for the people she wanted to find. Needed to find. But they weren't what she found first.

She spotted two of them just as she was about to come around the corner of Astoria's shop in order to enter it, but jumped back into the alley before either of the people in the middle of the street saw her. Or so she hoped, anyway.

"He's all mine now, of course," the further away and male voice was saying. "Just like many before him. And many after him."

"Perhaps not so many," the closer and female voice replied, though it was clear that she was tired. "Fewer devils, fewer lost souls."

"Don't be so sure, girl," the male said with some laughter, though it was lower than any voice she ever remembered hearing. "Devils are everywhere. Quietly making sure that everyone is tempted every day. And multiple people fall to said temptation every day. We're very good at this. And this town is no exception."

A new female voiced Amy's desperate thought. "There are more of you here?!" Amy thought she recognized this voice... and the more she thought about it, all of the voices rang bells in her mind... All of them were voices she should be able to name!

"What do we do?" Sammy whispered.

Amy shook her head and held her finger to her lips.

"There are lots of us," the male voice said easily. "What did you expect? Anywhere where there are humans that can be tempted, we will be also. Wherever there are sins that can be done, we will be also. If there are more opportunities for sins or temptations in a particular place than most, then there are probably more of us there than in most places. That's how this works, girls. Evil is everywhere."

"No," the first female said. "But since you deal in lies as quickly as sins, it's not like we're going to believe everything you say, anyway." Sounds of familiars fighting each other suddenly sounded, as if they were resuming from a cease fire. Amy chanced a look around the corner, but snapped back after getting an instant's picture of the scene. On the far side of the street was clearly Gertrude, though Amy had to think about it for a moment since the last time she had seen the young woman she had been in the holding cells beneath the Magistrate's building. Amy hadn't gotten a good enough look at the other two, but it was clear that the two women were working together against the man with the red skin.

Red skin? They had been talking about devils… but they weren't talking anymore. Now was simply the familiars having it out against each other. There was no way for Amy and Sammy to get into Astoria's shop without entering the street and risking either being spotted or even being targeted by one of the familiars that were fighting in the middle of the street. Amy and Sammy stared at each other, both aware of how much danger they were in.

Sammy shrugged. Amy figured that she meant that she didn't have any idea as to what they could do.

Amy and Sammy stared at each other as the sounds of familiar combat resounded out on the street. "We need to move," Sammy finally said quietly.

"Where?" Amy mouthed, creeping away from the opening to the street.

Sammy shrugged and pulled Amy further into the alley. "Somewhere away from here; away from the fighting."

While Amy knew that Sammy had the right of it: they needed to be somewhere other than where people were fighting in battles that had nothing to do with her, the other side of that coin was a worry. "The church!" she said suddenly, and Sammy nodded after a moment.

"Sure, but it means we'll have to go around the long way," she said. But she went along as Amy took the lead again. This time Amy moved with a purpose but not hurry. It was too important to avoid detection from any combatants that fought among the darkened husks of the buildings.

Light was scarce by the time the pair of young women had reached the stone church, which looked none the worse for wear from the damage wrought on the town while they had been gone. Amy rapped smartly on the door to the sacristy on the side furthest from the main road. To her surprise, the old Rector opened the door. "Yes, my child?"

"Is Al… Deacon Brandy about?" Amy asked haltingly.

"I have not seen him today," the old man said. "I am sorry. I would have thought that if anyone knew where he was, you would."

Amy didn't know precisely what he meant by that, but she filed it away from later. "What happened to Sallah? Was there a fire?"

"Have you been in the woods these past two days?" the Rector asked, surprised. "You must have been, in order to not know. A devil walks the streets, according to the townsfolk here. I have made this place a haven and sanctuary, though I am not sure it will hold against the black magic swirling through this town. If you wish shelter from the sin, I must ask you not to perform your… art… while you are here."

Amy thought about it for a moment, but finally shook her head. "No, but thank you for the offer." The Rector turned to Sammy, who similarly shook her head.

"Is Astoria Waldorf here?" Amy asked, but the Rector shook his head and Amy let out an exasperated sigh. "Thank you," she said, and when she stepped away from the door, it was shut and locked behind her in a bare moment.

"Now what?" Sammy asked. "If we aren't hiding here…"

"Not until we know Alex and Astoria's fates," Amy said, bringing the younger girl up short.

"We won't be able to find anything about him if we're already dead," Sammy pointed out irritably. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"I only know that my friends' lives are in danger, and if I can do something about it but don't, I would never forgive myself." Sammy subsided after that, but Amy was not completely sure what to do next as the two of them walked away from the stone church.

"Do you think it's possible that the battle has ended or moved away from the shop?" Sammy asked, and Amy looked at her for a moment.

"Maybe. It's likely worth a try to approach from a different direction." Sammy didn't have an objection to the plan, so the two of them continued circling around back to the main road on the east to west direction, and then further to go around the inn to not be caught with no cover for very long. They found no one on the trek, the town eerily deserted. It was not silent — the battle must have continued still — but for all that Amy and Sammy saw, it may as well have been. With care, the two of them approached the shop from the other side, this time the battle had moved far enough the street that while they could see it, they couldn't make out separate figures. It was approaching the southern edge of town… where the lab and church were. Amy tried not to think about it too hard.

Inside the shop, everything was in tatters. Sammy's mouth hung open as Amy stepped forward to caress one of the few pots still standing and its occupant. "Astoria?" Amy called, though not too loud for fear of anyone other than her mentor hearing. "Are you here?" Silence answered the young woman, and she exchanged a look with her partner before she carefully mounted the stairs, afraid that it might at any moment collapse under her feet. "Astoria?" she tried again, to the same result. She glanced behind her to see Sammy was picking up some of the less damaged but fallen items and seeing if any of them were viable. Amy continued up the stairs which were holding well enough under her feet that her worries about falling were leaving her.

It only took a glance before Amy knew that Astoria was not there. And hadn't been when the place had been destroyed, either. It was obvious that a creature had done it. _A Demon?_ Amy thought, looking around at the damage. No, Demons were well-known for using their claws when they could, teeth occasionally, and their tails were not strong enough to do the kind of damage she saw. It clearly was not fire, which would have been a Dragon, or any other familiar that Amy knew of. That really only left one thing — the Beast. And, of course, how to tell Sammy about it. At least she knew that there was no blood or anything around the room, only destroyed grimoires and books, which if hard to replace, were at least replaceable. Amy couldn't think of a reason to dally any longer, and returned downstairs.

"Well?" Sammy asked, strangely calm.

"Destroyed, but no one was or is there," Amy said.

"Do you know by what?"

"Know? No. Suspect…"

Sammy's eyes widened. "The Beast."

Amy shook her head. "There's no proof it is… but…"

Sammy took a shuddering breath with her eyes closed, and then opened them to look at Amy again. "We should prepare to be attacked, no matter where we sleep tonight."

"We don't want them to know we're here in the first place… what sorts of defenses can we put up without having also put up a sign that screams out that there are mages hiding out here?" Amy asked.

Sammy tapped a finger on her lips as she thought. "We'll have to have triggers that summon familiars bound to objects. You walked me through doing it once…"

Amy sighed. "Alright. But we should also probably keep a watch. There's no telling what might try to come through the door if we're not careful. And…" Was she really comfortable settling down, when she still knew nothing about where Alex and Astoria were?

"Unless you're wanting to charge out there and attack the people fighting, there's no point to leaving right now," Sammy said quietly. "We can't help them if we're dead."

"We can't help them if they're dead, either," Amy countered, but then she sighed. "You're right; we can't run over there and challenge the fighters."

"Not without getting ourselves killed," Sammy said. "I'll watch first, and wake you when I can't stay up any more?" And so they set up for the night, unsure as to what awaited their searching in the morning.


	14. Prisoner Day 5

**Prisoner Day 5**

The battle seemed to have completely left earshot by the time that Amy had awoken for her watch. Sammy had kept her promise, though barely. Once she had been sure that Amy was awake, Sammy fell over onto her own bedroll and was immediately dead to the world. Amy chuckled and brushed a hand through the younger girl's hair. She went over to sit by the door of the shop, and found that she could see and hear nothing going on in the streets. It was long after midnight, and Amy almost felt like that she'd had a full night's sleep… even if she'd prefer to go back and catch a few more winks.

The lack of events outside had Amy catching herself not paying enough attention to her watch. She wasn't in all that much danger of falling asleep so much as letting her mind wander to think about things like where Astoria had gone, and why she wasn't back yet. Or where Alex had gone off that had made the Rector think that Amy was probably better informed about that.

It only took a moment of thought on that particular subject before she realized that it was obviously true that the Rector knew… that Amy liked Alex. Well… there was a thought to make Amy's cheeks red. She was glad that she hadn't bothered to think about that comment too hard at the time. The _Rector_ knew! How did Alex not know, anyway? Maybe Sammy was right. Maybe he was just extremely dense. She slowly scanned the nightscape with her eyes. Still nothing. And nothing had come to her ears since Sammy's breathing had become regular and soft in the back of the shop.

Except… there was a faint light that seemed to be coming from the back of the inn. It was so faint that if Amy hadn't been sitting there staring at darkness for the past few hours, there was no way that she would have noticed it. It was a soft golden light, but even with no other distractions, Amy had to squint in order to be sure that she could see it.

Making sure that she wasn't ignoring any of the other angles to get to the shop by casting glances to the other angles again, she thought momentarily about going to investigate the light. Then a glance into the shop showed her Sammy sleeping on her bedroll, and she relaxed back into her makeshift seat.

It was a long night.

Amy was afraid that she had fallen asleep herself when she suddenly noticed that the eastern sky was painted with oranges and yellows. But as she quickly looked around at the still silent town, she found that she hadn't missed anything at all. And that the town seemed even more deserted than it had yesterday, without the battle to add noises to the otherwise silent and motionless townscape.

She walked over and shook Sammy until the younger girl showed recognition in her eyes. "Wake up while you watch and I'll get everything hidden upstairs." Nothing happened while Amy hid the stuff, and she handed Sammy some leftover bread that seemed to be good from Astoria's food stores.

"What now?" Sammy asked quietly once the two of them were ready to move if they decided to do so. "Still looking for Astoria and Alex? If not necessarily in that order?"

Amy looked at Sammy with more than a little bit of a glare. "You can joke about such things _now_?"

Sammy shrugged. "It's either laugh or…" she trailed off. Amy barely heard her finish: "cry."

Amy couldn't help but relax a little bit when she heard that. At least she wasn't the only one going a little crazy. She put a hand on the younger girl's shoulder.

"We have to think about the possibility that neither of them lived through the fire or destruction that has been going on," Sammy said after a short pause. "What do we do if there's no one here?"

"We go to my parents' house and wait for them," Amy said. "And we figure it out from there. But I don't want to give up yet."

Sammy turned to face her. "Even if you just let us sleep? If they're in trouble—"

"Then we probably missed our chance a long time ago," Amy finished emphatically. "Probably before we got here." Her grip tightened on Sammy's shoulder. "I need to know that, though. I need… I need to know where they are… what happened here."

Sammy put her hand on top of Amy's. "Do you promise to run with me if it gets too dangerous?" When Amy remained silent, Sammy took Amy's hand in both of her own and looked plaintively in her eyes. "If they're gone, you're all I have, Amy."

Amy let out a gusty sigh. "I promise."

Sammy let go of Amy's hand and looked out at the brightening street. "So… where do we check, then?"

Amy didn't really have an answer ready for that one. "I… don't know," she admitted.

Sammy glanced back at her and returned to look at the street. "We've tried the church. We're standing in Astoria's house. Do you think Ribbon's place is still good?"

Amy had to suppress a shudder. "Why would we go in there willingly?"

Sammy turned to her. "Because no one's there. And if no one was there, then perhaps it wasn't attacked. It may be a relatively safe place to hide out."

"I don't want to." She felt extremely immature the instant the words were out of her mouth, but she would _not_ take them back.

"My garden is first, probably ruined, and second, really easy to see, so I doubt there's anyone there. We know they're not at the church—"

Amy pounced on this. "We know they _weren't_ at the church last night. That could have changed over night."

Sammy looked dubious. "Would Astoria go someplace that she wouldn't be able to use her magic without pissing off the people in charge?" Then she sighed. "Though I guess Alex could be there. Fine. Only once more, though." Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I want to get out of here. Anywhere but here."

Amy drew herself together. "I did promise. We check the church again.. And… we'll be at my parent's house before midnight." She hoped. With Alex and Astoria to help.

"Alright," Sammy said, though she was clearly less than pleased with the plan. "Let's get it over with, then, okay?"

Duly decided upon, the two of them left the shop quietly into the morning light. Both of them carefully made their way down the main north-south street where they had seen the battle the previous day and confirmed what they had figured with their senses: all of the mana had been drained from the area, and very little of it had been restored since. There was so little in the way of mana that drawing a Rune and summoning a single familiar to attempt to collect it was likely to be inefficient. Amy breathed a little easier once she had confirmed this. Without all that much in the way of mana, the battle had to have moved elsewhere.

Sammy seemed to have noticed the same thing, as her eyes were drawn to the few places that had any mana drawn at all, and she seemed more and more comfortable as she drew her eyes over more and more empty areas. "It looks like there might not be anyone nearby anymore."

"That's the hope," Amy said. "If they're not here anymore because of the lack of mana, anywhere they went yesterday is safer than places they haven't been."

Sammy nodded, then gasped. "Is that… a body?!"

Amy's eyes were immediately drawn forward to where Sammy pointed. Sure enough, there was a body of a young man there. Amy ran to the spot, completely forgetting that she had been intending to not allow anyone to hear her or Sammy as they went down the street. But the closer she got the more that the fear rose in her throat. _That's Alex!_

And it was. She reached him and fell to her knees beside him to lay her head against his chest. A heartbeat! It rose and fell! He was still alive. She sat up, trying to get her own heart to return to a more reasonable pace itself. He stirred slightly, and she touched his shoulder gently. "Alex, it's okay," she said quietly.

His eyes fluttered open. "A-amy?" He said without belief. He began to cough.

"Don't strain yourself," Amy admonished. "Are you hurt? Can you move? It's not safe to be in the middle of the street when a magical battle might break out at any time."

Alex shook his head slightly. "N-no… Amy…" He coughed again.

"Alex! Stop! You shouldn't ta-" Amy cut herself off when Alex's hand grasped her collar tightly. His eyes were pleading. "What, Alex?"

"Run," he managed to get out, before he collapsed back onto the ground and began to spasm. Amy felt herself hauled up from behind.

"Let's _go!_" Sammy said as she pulled the older girl away from the spasming Alex. "We have to get away from him!"

While the primary question in Amy's head was 'Why?' the one thing she knew is that both Sammy and Alex wanted her to run. So she should, clearly. She let Sammy pull her away but looked over her shoulder at the fallen young man. Something was happening to him. His skin… looked different, and he definitely looked like he was in pain.

"He's coming to?!" A new voice said, and Gertrude walked onto the street from one of the side streets between where Sammy and Amy had made it to and Alex. "I thought I'd had him. Especially after…" She shut her mouth on whatever the next word was, spotting the two girls. "Run!" she told them, then she turned to face Alex and Amy forced herself to look forward.

Just in time to spot the two Demons coming from each side. Sammy came to a stop instantly, and her wand came out. Amy turned to look at Gertrude. "Are these yours?" she shouted at her.

The confused, then surprised look on the woman's face was all that Amy needed. "Summon and draw!" she said aloud as she drew with her own wand. Both of the fairies that she used as her instant summoning came to her call. Sammy had one as well, so the three fairies drew on their bows and immediately focused their fire on the nearest Demon.

They didn't have a chance.

The three fairies were all gone by the time either of the young women had finished drawing their Runes, and didn't give them enough time to summon anything from either of them before the claws tore through the Runes in short order. Amy and Sammy both retreated toward where Gertrude was, using the time in which their Runes had been destroyed to escape the range of the Demons. "Gertrude!" Sammy shouted shrilly as the Demons bore down on them. A unicorn stepped in the way, bringing up its shield. Then one of the Demons was down to the arrows of Gertrude's own Fairies. The Fairies continued their assault, but only one of the three remaining Demons was sufficiently distracted by the still shielded unicorn.

Amy jumped in front of Sammy before the two Demons could reach her and stared defiantly back at their devilish eyes. "No!" she heard from behind her. "Amy!" She felt the claws rip through her clothing like air and her flesh like butter. She dropped instantly, feeling her blood run out onto the stones of the street. Sammy was kneeling next to her instantly, completely ignoring the danger above. "Amy! You promised!" So she had. She tried to chuckle, but it gurgled in her throat and she coughed up blood instead. "Amy!"

She thought that it had been a rather long time since she had been felled, and wondered why the Demons had ignored Sammy's easy prize. She then felt a presence on her other side, and she just managed to turn her head to regard Gertrude Silvaner, who had… a rather complex mix of expressions on her face. "I'm sorry I could only save one of you," she said to Amy. "I'm so sorry that I've never been able to save both of you."

Amy blinked up at her, confused, but Gertrude shook her head. "There's no time. I really need to know a couple things, and I may only be able to get those answers now. Was your family ever in any danger?"

Amy mutely shook her head slightly while Sammy said, "They are away at the Baron's manse."

Gertrude acquired a small smile. "Good. What's your relationship to that man over there?" She cocked her head to indicate where Alex had been the last time Amy had looked at him. Her eyes widened, and she certainly felt afraid. Why did this woman want to know that?

Sammy was similarly dubious. "What do you need to know that for?"

"Well, I do know that the reason he's in this state is because he didn't know where you were. He thought you were under arrest like I was. I'm not sure how he got that in his head, but he did. I wanted to confirm why that mattered to him so much that he would do such a terrible thing for your sake."

"What… terrible thing?" Sammy asked, though Amy wasn't quite sure she wanted to know the answer.

"To sell his soul to a Devil," Gertrude said in the same frustratingly calm tone. She looked up toward some of the battling familiars, seemed to give some orders with her gestures, then returned her attention to Amy. "I have no Elves I could get to heal you in time; I'm sorry. I failed you again."

"Again?" Sammy asked. Then her eyebrows came down. "Who are you, anyway?"

"The Remnant Revnant, of course," Gertrude said. And that's when Amy felt her life drain out of her. She reached blindly for Sammy, but couldn't feel whether she succeeded or not. She did hear what Gertrude said next, though.

"Don't worry. I've got Sammy. And next time you'll be okay too." Swirls of blue and green. Then, nothing.

_What I can see… is a tragedy unfolding._

_What I can hear… is a scream rending._

_What I can feel… is a fear paralyzing._

_I want to know if there is anything else in this world._

_Tomorrow's sunrise… is it my last?_

Tomorrow… **Traveler.**


End file.
